Five Digital Assets Every Business Should Verify It Actually Owns

Most business owners assume that their company owns its digital assets. Often, however, that assumption is far from reality. Ownership is not nearly as clear as people expect.

Many ownership issues arise because businesses move quickly in their early stages. A founder purchases a domain name using a personal email address. A freelance developer builds the website. A marketing consultant—or a even friend—creates social media accounts. Someone signs up for software subscriptions or opens a cloud-storage account. None of these decisions seem important or problematic at the time because everyone involved is working toward the same goal: getting the business started.

Years later, however, the circumstances may change. The founder may be preparing to sell the company, an employee who did a bulk of this work may have left, or investors may be conducting due diligence about the company’s ownership rights. In these circumstances, what once seemed like a minor administrative detail that no one paid any attention to can quickly become an expensive legal and operational problem.

I have recently encountered situations where important business assets were tied to a founder’s personal social media account, a former employee’s email address, or a third-party vendor’s system. Again, the issue never came up because no one had asked whether the company can prove it owns the digital assets it uses and relies on every day. I should say, no one had ever asked about it yet.

Drawing from these experiences, I’m sharing five digital assets that every business should verify it actually owns.

1. Domain Names

A company’s domain name is often one of its most valuable assets. That said, many businesses discover that their domain is registered under the personal email address of a founder or former employee or the email address of a web developer or other outside consultant. The fact that a company pays for a domain or uses it every day does not necessarily mean the company controls it.

Businesses should periodically confirm who is listed as the registrant, who controls the registrar account, and whether the company can access and transfer the domain if necessary.

2. Website Content

Ownership of a website involves more than just the domain name. Website copy, images, graphics, videos, logos, and other content may have been created by employees, contractors, marketing agencies, photographers, or other third parties. Often these items are protected by copyright and a business cannot legally “borrow” them from online to include on their own website.

Businesses should ensure that appropriate agreements assign ownership rights to the company and permit continued use of the content. Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for businesses to discover years after the fact that they never actually obtained the rights in these assets that they assumed they had.

3. Software and Source Code

This issue frequently arises with startups and technology-driven companies, although I have seen it on more than once occasion with mid-sized businesses in their prime.

A business may hire an independent developer to build an application, internal tool, client portal, or customer-facing platform. Who owns that tool? If ownership is not properly addressed in a written agreement, the legal rights associated with that work may be far less clear than the business expected. In fact, in the absence of an agreement to the contrary, ownership often lies with the software developer.

Although a company may believe it owns the software because it paid for its development, ownership of software and source code is not that simple.

4. Social Media Accounts

Many businesses invest significant time and resources in building social media audiences.

Problems arise, however when those accounts are connected to personal email addresses, personal phone numbers, or individual employee accounts rather than company-controlled accounts.

Businesses need to make certain that they have administrative access, recovery information, and control independent of any one individual affiliated with the company. An account can quickly become inaccessible when an employee leaves. I have seen this happen many times.

5. Customer and Prospect Data

Customer lists, prospect databases, CRM systems, marketing lists, and other business data are often among a company’s most valuable assets.

Businesses need to understand where that data is stored, who controls access to it, whether it can be exported if needed, and whether any third-party agreements affect ownership or retrieval rights. A surprising number of companies never examine these questions until they need the information right away and are blocked from accessing it. 

A Simple Ownership Audit

What I have learned is that most digital asset ownership problems are not discovered during ordinary day-to-day operations. They are discovered when the business is at a critical transition point, such as when a founder leaves, a dispute arises, an investor begins due diligence, a buyer starts asking questions, or a key employee leaves unexpectedly. This is the worst time for a business to realize it cannot access critical information that it relies on day in and day out, and yet this is when it usually happens.

This type of fire drill can certainly be avoided. How? Conducting a simple audit of a business’s key digital assets to confirm that ownership and control are properly documented will prevent significant stress and questioning down the road.