HubSpot partners must comply with certain legal obligations to strengthen business relationships
Every employment contract involves a set of legal rules that must be followed, and the Solutions Partner Program is no exception. In this article, we'll take a look at some general legal details that HubSpot partners need to be aware of in terms of confidentiality, intellectual property and security. Let's get started!
Legal aspects of confidentiality
To ensure trust between partners and HubSpot, there are confidentiality terms that must be respected, so let's take a look at what HubSpot considers to be confidential information:
- customer and prospect data. This includes all personal and professional information about customers, as well as their content. It is a very broad category because it covers a lot of data.
- innovation or product launch plans, i.e., confidential information that HubSpot shares with its partners about future plans (whose ideas may not be fully realised) or release dates for new products or services.
- all information related to product pilots or betas. Most of these tests are usually private, but partners may participate in order for HubSpot to test the product or service and make appropriate changes. All information related to these programmes is confidential, including the actual participation of partners (who must agree to confidentiality terms).
- information about HubSpot's performance and funding. Data about HubSpot's losses, profits or revenues are confidential before they are made public.
- elements about the company's vision, including pricing, HubSpot's internal phrases, details about mass events, company goals, marketing plans, etc.
- human resources information, such as hiring plans. This also refers to new additions to the management team before they come to light. In addition, this includes any changes to the company's executive team or if a member is suffering from an illness.
Insinuations of confidential information made to outsiders or the media may be a breach of these terms, so partners should limit themselves to using only information that has already been legitimately made public. However, HubSpot often includes warnings in its content as a reminder.
Breach of confidentiality is a serious problem for HubSpot, but it also puts its trust with partners at risk. For this reason, the company has designed a list of direct consequences for partners who violate these terms in order to avoid these uncomfortable situations. These consequences vary depending on the severity of the issue, but range from not sharing content with the partner for a minimum of 12 months to denying access to any HubSpot service or even taking legal action.
If you are a HubSpot partner and have questions about this issue, please contact your CAM or CC.
4 essential concepts about intellectual property
In addition to confidentiality, intellectual property is another of the legal aspects to take into account as a HubSpot partner. As a brief introduction to the subject, let's take a look at the 4 basic concepts of intellectual property:
- trademarks: In order to differentiate brands and avoid any confusion among consumers, it is necessary to register certain elements, i.e. identity marks such as words, slogans, symbols, images, sounds, etc. In this way, users can distinguish from which brand a product or service comes from.
- copyright: In this case, the acquisition of the rights to a work allows the author to be recognised as the owner. When we talk about works, we are referring to tangible media such as films, books, music, paintings, photographs, illustrations, etc. In other words, an idea cannot be copyrighted. At HubSpot, the works under this protection are articles, blogs, courses or videos.
- patents: With these, you can register your own inventions for a certain period of time, on condition that you make them public. In relation to HubSpot and the partner programme, the two most common patents are utility and design patents.
- trade secrets are an opportunity to differentiate yourself from the competition because they offer privacy to businesses, so secrets can be programmes, formulas, methods, patterns, etc.
Tips for adhering to HubSpot's intellectual property rules
Now that the basics of intellectual property are clear, it is time to address some recommendations for HubSpot partners. The purpose of these tips is to avoid problems related to HubSpot's trademarks and copyrights. Let's look at them one by one:
- make use of your badges- show what level of the programme your company is at and what courses you have completed thanks to the credentials HubSpot offers its partners.
- use generic HubSpot material. There is a lot of content available to partners in the generic material library. Use it to apply marketing strategies, attract leads and close inbound sales. In this sense, keep in mind that you cannot apply your brand's corporate image to non-generic HubSpot content.
- avoid similarities between your brands and HubSpot's brands. Use distinct identity elements that do not confuse consumers, thus avoiding any risk of intellectual property infringement. Choose a unique name for your brand and visual and aesthetic elements that cannot be related to HubSpot's corporate image.
- do not register domains with HubSpot's family of brands. Cybersquatting is penalised in the Solutions Partner Program. This practice consists of acquiring web domains that include the name of existing brands, with the aim of extracting a financial benefit based on blackmail or threats.
Security tips
Security and privacy are essential elements to develop effective business activities. Therefore, HubSpot emphasises this aspect to avoid problems affecting partners, customers or themselves. In this sense, let's take a look at some tips to ensure the security of your company:
- protect your company's HubSpot accounts, i.e. take special care when it comes to security when logging into your portal by protecting the usernames and passwords of all your users.
- control user authorisations and permissions. Grant the appropriate permissions to each user of your portal so that each user only has access to the tools appropriate to their position. In this way, it is important that you reduce the number of people who can access high-risk options to a minimum. On the other hand, never add users to your customers' accounts without first informing them.
- activate a two-step authorisation when accessing your or your customers' portal.
- include the CAPTCHA test in your forms, to prevent bots from registering, which can damage the correct functioning of the forms.
- delete data you don't need. A data retention and deletion policy allows you to reduce the amount of information you handle, something very convenient to comply with current privacy laws. This way, you will be eliminating data that is no longer useful for your company and offering a guarantee of confidentiality to your customers.
- make your company's employees aware of this issue. Get involved in staff training so that they are aware of the security policies. It is also advisable to specify which content requires confidentiality.
- report any security issues to HubSpot.
Compliance with all of these legal issues will make your relationship with HubSpot and customers as beneficial as possible, so it is important that you remain vigilant and exercise caution at all times.
