Cease & Desist Letter (Infringing Domain)

Cease & Desist Letter (Infringing Domain)

£20.00

Available to download

This letter should be used in circumstances where you discover that a third party is operating a website that appears to represent that their business activities are in some way connected with your business when in fact no such connection exists.

In order to protect your business’s intellectual property and/or reputation you would send this letter asking the owners of this website to remove this website that suggests that any connection exists between you. In law, this is known as a cease and desist request.

This would normally form the initial stage of civil litigation, i.e. you are notifying the owner of the offending domain that their activity is unacceptable to you and you are asking them to stop.

If they still continue with this activity you may be able to commence civil litigation (in the form of an injunction or other court order) which would result in that company being forced to take down their website.

Available to download

Product Description

You should consider the following:

  • Is your product or service one that you can claim exclusivity over? Have you obtained trademarks or patents or other copyright that is being infringed? If not, you may struggle to justify asking the third party to remove the website. It may be beneficial for you to seek legal advice prior to issuing this letter.
  • Do you have evidence of an actual negative impact on your own business as a result of the activity of the third party’s website? Have customers complained to you or said that they no longer wish to use your services in favour of the third party? Have you lost out on potential trade/ business?
  • If the product or service or other information on the website is not something you can claim exclusivity over, you may want to consider offering to buy the domain name from the third party, thereby ensuring that you control the use of it and also potentially widening your audience.
  • Within what timeframe do you wish the website to be removed? This has to be reasonable if you wish to consider litigation for failure to comply.
  • If the company refuses to comply with the cease and desist letter, do you want to pursue a civil action against them, bear in mind that litigation is often expensive and risky and you may not win!

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