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that you fi nd online? If so, you may violate EDM Today Magazine
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DIGITAL MEDIA MARKETING –
MANAGING THE RISK OF LIABILITY

Do you create digital content for your
organization? Do you copy and paste images

someone’s copyright.
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In today’s connected digital-media-world, social
media marketing has quickly outpaced other
forms of marketing in both scope and reach.
We use platforms like X, Facebook, Instagram,
LinkedIn, and YouTube to create a following and
reach prospective customers. Posting regularly
is encouraged, as it maximizes the effectiveness
of our marketing efforts.
We all use photos and images in our marketing
tools; be it Social Media, website updates, or
printed promotional materials. A simple Google
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search makes it easy to fi nd almost any image
you need, with just a few clicks of the mouse.
But are you aware that someone may own the
image you just copied? Do you assume that it
must be free just because you can fi nd it online?

In this issue of Legal News & Views, we will
explore issues related to digital rights and Intellectual Property (IP), and what should be considered when searching
for an image for promotional purposes.
For a better understanding of these issues, EDM Today reached out to Michael Bendel,
a partner at Amundsen Davis, who handles intellectual property matters. We asked
Mr. Bendel the following questions:
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ET: What types of materials (words or images) are considered intellectual property?
MB: Yes! But seriously, any creative work taken out of a person’s head can be intellectual
property, in the right situation. The more operative questions become, what type of intellec-
tual property is it, how is it protected and who can use it? The two most common types of
formal intellectual property embodied in words or images are trademarks and copyrights.
For example, a trademark can be any word, name, symbol, sound, smell, really any source

“creative enough” work that is fi xed in a tangible medium, and here by “tangible” we most
often mean digital in addition to 2-D and 3-D works we can touch and feel. Copyright
Michael Bendel, Partner identifi er, often what we call a brand. In regard to copyrights, a copyright attaches to any
protectable works can be as simple as the texts and emails we send all day long, or more
Amundsen Davis, LLC. complex like a print add, a photograph, a website, and even more complex like a TV sitcom,
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a sculpture, a painting, a motion picture, or an NFL televised football game.
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