The event was opened to members and non-members of the Chamber.

Corporate Commercial Solicitors, Alison Whittingham and Bridget Dickinson spoke on how businesses' websites and the use of trade marks can play an important role in the promotion and protection of their products and services.

Bridget explained that trading online is a complicated area and stressed the importance of website owners ensuring that use of their sites are governed by robust website terms of use and trading and that these are carefully tailored to the products and services businesses provide to their customers and the terms on which those products and services are to be provided.  In order to ensure that they trade on their terms and are compliant with the relevant legislation, Bridget recommended that any business owner who is trading online (or is considering doing so for the first time) should consult a solicitor about their website content and the policies they need to put in place to govern use of their site and the terms on which they trade.  She would say businesses (or indeed any other organisation for that matter) should make sure that they do not copy policies from another site and think "they'll do" - frequently they don't!

Bridget also addressed the importance of privacy and businesses ensuring that they comply with the provisions of the Data Protection Act and touched on the provisions that website owners must consider to ensure that their sites can be readily accessed by elderly and disabled visitors.

Ailson discussed the importance of trademarks and protection of brands (i.e. logo) and how registering a trademark can increase the value of your business.  She also highlighted two very interesting cases that illustrated how easy and how costly it can be to get this important aspect wrong.

If you would like more information on Website Accessibility (WAI), please visit http://www.number10.gov.uk/footer/accessibility.  Another site which may be of interest is the RNIB site - http://rnib.org.uk/professionals/webaccessibility/designbuild/Pages/design_build.aspx.

If you have a query regarding these topics, please feel free to contact Alison or Bridget on 01823 625800.  To find out more about Taunton Chamber of Commerce, please contact Jane Burden on 01823 353353 or email office at office@taunton-chamber.co.uk.

From left to right  - Alison Whittingham (Porter Dodson), Colin Barrell (Taunton Chamber), Bridget Dickinson (Porter Dodson), Jane Burden (Taunton Chamber) and Chris Winter (Taunton Chamber)