There comes a time when people or a company uses your intellectual property for their work, but without your permission. When you get to know about this illegal action, you can first ask the company or the person to stop using your property for their personal use. If they still refuse to do so and continue using your property for their personal usage, then you can decide whether to take the issue to the court.
Many legal issues are not easily handled, if you do not involve the help from an experienced expert. Even though you decide to get the work done all alone, there are certain rules and limitations that might make it difficult for you to present the case in the court like the way you did. Hence, taking help from legal sources is always recommended.
IP laws, also known as Intellectual Property law, cover various areas such as trade secrets, patents, copyright and trademarks. Each remedy and right that belongs to people differs in each area, which is covered under IP law. Only the help of an experienced IP lawyer can help you with taking care of all issues that are related to your intellectual property.
How to Proceed with IP Usage Case
When you discover that your intellectual property is being used without your permission, your first step is to contact the person using your property. This work is done by your lawyer. If you do not have a lawyer, then you can find the experienced expert from the nearby law firms or look for the reputed attorney from the available list of intellectual property lawyers from online sources.
The main work of your IP lawyer is to locate the postal address of the person using your intellectual property without your knowledge. Once they do so, they will then send the desist and cease letter to the person responsible for the usage of your property and ask them to cease the work in your property. The letter includes,
- The complete information about the infringed work in your property
- The infringement type such as copyright or patent, etc,
- The kind of action that you expect from them. It might include either the complete removal of your trademark from their company website or complete removal of the material from their website, and so on
The letter will be then concluded with the time duration that you are providing for your offender. It becomes their responsibility to cease the work done in your intellectual property within the deadline.
Pursuing Legal Action
Always remember that the case that you are filing against your offender will become legal only if you have already registered your work and have even patented it. If you have not taken care of this work, then your case might not have the actual effect on the other party like you expect it to be. Hence, before proceeding with sending the cease and desist letter, it is strongly suggested to legalize your work by registering it in the local court of law.