What Should You Do If Your Intellectual Property Is Being Used Without Your Permission?

If your intellectual property is not in the public domain, you may protect it legally. This is how.

If you learn that your intellectual property has been stolen or is being used without your permission, your first move is usually to request that the individual or firm cease. It sometimes works. If it does not, you must determine whether to pursue the case to court.

Even if you do not intend to suit, you should get legal counsel. The many categories of intellectual property law (patents, trademarks, copyright, and trade secrets) are intricate, and your rights and remedies vary. Some infringement may also be considered illegal. An expert intellectual property attorney can assist you in evaluating your choices and determining the best course of action.

Send Stop Infringement Requests

In general, the first thing you should do if you find your IP address has been stolen or used without permission is to notify the perpetrator. You or your lawyer may write a cease and desist letter to the individual or corporation demanding that they stop utilizing your work. At the very least, the letter should include:

Details about the allegedly infringed work

The sort of infraction (patent, copyright, etc.)

The action you want (remove material from a website, stop using a trademark, etc.)

Provide a time restriction for responding as well, so you know when to take additional action if required.

You have an extra option to prosecute for copyright infringement on the Internet under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The statute permits you to submit takedown warnings to the infringer’s website host and other service providers servicing the site, including as search engines and ad networks (such as Google AdSense). Similar to a stop and desist letter, the substance of these letters should contain an identification of the infringing material, where it may be found (URL), and the action you anticipate the service provider to take, such as removing the site from its index.

Since website owners might be difficult to locate, you may need to do some digging:

A WHOIS lookup will provide the name of the domain’s registrant, who is often also the owner. Numerous domain name registrars, including GoDaddy and Network Solutions, provide free WHOIS lookup services.

Private registrations will list the registrant as the firm that provides the privacy service. You may also submit a DMCA notice to this firm.

You may also be able to get a federal court order under the DMCA compelling a service provider to reveal the identify of the accused offender.

If you suspect that someone has gotten a patent that infringes on yours, you may file a Request for Reexamination with the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). A reexamination request is made because you believe the patent was awarded incorrectly since the innovation was previously detailed, in this example in your patent. A patent examiner will re-examine the allegedly infringing patent.

If you see someone using a confusingly similar trademark, you should send them a trademark violation letter.

Take Legal Action

Your work must be registered before you may pursue legal action in a copyright infringement case. If it isn’t, register it as quickly as possible since you won’t be able to recoup damages for the period the job remains unregistered. Similarly, you can’t sue for patent infringement until the USPTO grants your patent, although you may be able to recoup some damages from before the patent was issued.

You may be able to submit a civil lawsuit, a criminal complaint, or both depending on the kind of violation. Infringement of intellectual property rights, trademarks, and patents may all be addressed in civil court. Based on the circumstances of your case, the extent of your injuries, and other criteria, you may be entitled to obtain:

An injunction to prevent the individual from using your IP in the future, including the removal of a product from the market.

Compensation for your losses

All or a portion of the infringer’s earnings from the use of your intellectual property

Lawyer’s fees

Punitive measures

The majority of intellectual property infringement lawsuits are handled in federal court, but if your case concerns an unregistered trademark or one that is only registered in your state, you must file in state court.

Certain examples of intellectual property theft may potentially be illegal. Certain sorts of trade secret theft are now federal offences under the Economic Espionage Act of 1996. Counterfeiting and piracy are both illegal. If the products are for sale online, you may report them to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center. If the items are being imported from another country, you may notify US Customs and Border Protection as well as the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center.

The Financial Institution Fraud Section of the FBI investigates criminal infringements of non-digital, non-Internet-related works. Your intellectual property attorney can assist you in determining whether or not the infringement of your work is illegal and where to report it. If you decide to launch a civil claim, your attorney can assist you in doing so and building a compelling case.