What To Do When Someone Infringes On Your Patents
Intellectual property is one of the valuable assets that you can possess today. The actual value usually can’t be seen until the whole plan has taken off. Securing your patent early enough can help you get there first and being the first matters.
And you have to find out exactly how to protect your property if you were there first. This means you have to look for ways to stop anyone who may try to infringe on it. Intellectual property can be anything from copyright, patents, and trademarks.
Speaking of patents, these are probably the most IPs that are always at risk of getting infringed on. So, what can you do when someone infringes on your patents? Here are the right processes that you should follow up on.
Table of Contents
Things To Do If Someone Infringes On Your Patents
1. Registration
The first line of defense when you have intellectual property is to ensure that it is registered. Once it is registered, the trademark protects you from people stealing either your business name, designs, logo, and marketing phrases. The trademark registration is done by the patent office.
In case you were wondering, you can have copyright protection for any of your original works, especially for talented artists living in California. This includes pictures, videos, sound, music, architecture and so much more. You may, however, need an OC Patent Lawyer to help you file for a patent.
The process can be tedious and a bit complicated if you have no idea about copyright law. The fees for filing the claim are also non-refundable, a simple mess and you lose the money.
2. Cease And Desist
Once there is suspicion that there may be someone who is using your logo, marketing product, or music, you need to contact your attorney. With your attorney, you can review the facts, first to determine there’s an infringement to your rights.
Then, the attorney can spell out your options on how to deal with the infringement if there’s a genuine case. Remember that these laws are a bit different and getting a patent specialist is the best way to go about it.
When all is clear, the first step that should be taken is to send a cease and desist letter to the other party. This letter generally informs the other person that they are infringing on your business and you demand they stop. The letter identifies exactly in what way they are infringing on your rights.
In some instances, however, the cease and desist letter may not be the right approach for someone infringing on your rights. Discuss with your lawyer what mode is best suited for your patent and if litigation is required.
3. Takedown Letter
Since the digital space is fast-growing, there are bound to be some unscrupulous people who may steal your material. When this happens, you have to file a take-down order, with the help of your attorney. This action is found under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. This letter can be sent to the owner of the website or Google so that the content can be taken down. With digital content, you don’t necessarily even need to have registered the trademark before to have a case.
If all evidence points to you having the first copy online then you can gather your momentum on filing for the takedown order. And so long as the content you have isn’t under the exemption of the freedom of speech, you should file.
4. Litigation
The last line of defense or rather what you must now do when someone is infringing on your patent is to litigate the matter. In most scenarios, this comes only after the cease and desist order has been ignored. In some instances, it is the first line of defense against a hostile violator.
You have to contact a good attorney for this process as it is to play out in court. There are several firms with experienced attorneys that can take up the matter. You have to ensure that you do your due diligence before you contract any for the process.
With a good lawyer, you’re of course bound to take home the win considering you’re in the right and had filled for registration early enough.
In the best-case scenario, you should have the same firm handle the registration of the patent, drafting, and sending the cease and desist. Right down to the litigation part if it comes down to it as they’d be familiar with your copyright and how to defend you.
Patents are quite sensitive that you need to have the right people around to ensure that, from filling for registration is handled well. But if it comes down to it, you now have an idea of how you need to go about when your rights are infringed.
