QUESTION: “Looking for attorney for entrepreneur. Please address legal issues you see in the details in your answer. The business model is providing dentists with a custom designed YouTube Channel, Facebook page, Twitter account , as well as posts for their blog. In addition I would be looking to provide them was a library of Facebook posts for their site. The Facebook posts would be suggestions which they can decide if they want to use. All of this for a low monthly fee. What are the legal issues here?”
Orlando, FL
ANSWER: You need a standard services agreement. The legal issues and terms of your agreement with each dentist client can cover any of the following deal points (not an exhaustive list):
- How many videos are you posting, and how often? What other social media channels are you handling for this client?
- What is the term of the contract?
- Who pays for cost of production of each video, included in the monthly fee, or separate fee? What about the quality of each video?
- Who owns the intellectual property to the videos and youtube channels which you create for your clients?
- What happens if someone sees your ad for Dentist A on YouTube, goes to Dentist A, is injured by Dentist A, and is now suing Dentist A for malpractice. Are you, as advertiser or marketing firm for Dentist A, liable?
In addition you may want to carefully draft the payment and deliverables schedules in your contract so that payments are coming in without issue, and the schedule for deliverables, rewrites / redrafts and other terms relevant to creative services is included in the agreement to the extent practical.
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Author: David N. Sharifi, Esq. is a Los Angeles based intellectual property attorney and technology startup consultant with focuses in entertainment law, emerging technologies, trademark protection, and “the internet of things”. David was recognized as one of the Top 30 Most Influential Attorneys in Digital Media and E-Commerce Law by the Los Angeles Business Journal in 2014. Office: Ph: 310-751-0181; david@latml.com.
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