Forum Moderators: not2easy
I deffinitly want to seek monetary damages, but am unsure as to the best steps to take first ( they don't know that I know ).
Has anyone been dealt with the same 'deck of cards'?
If so, what did/would you do to protect yourself? I'm not asking for legal advise, just opinions.
[sorry for any mis-spellings, but my stupid spell-check won't work for some reason]
Thanks in advance for any insight.
Peter
PS... I already know that hiring an attorney is upmost, just wanted to know what course of action others may have done or gone through.
First thing I'd do is run over to Google, Yahoo, and archive.org and save the web pages as complete archives. This way you'll have some evidence as to when the logo showed up (especially if you use archive.org). Using these will give you some evidence of past use so you justify your monetary damages.
I've already taken screen shots and print-outs of the offending site, including code - plus Google and Yahoo 'cached' views. Didn't think about archive.org - an additional source certainly won't hurt :)
Peter
What monetary damages are you looking for?
The registered copyright will cover the artwork itself, and the use of it. You need trademark to cover their abuse by using the logo to link to your competitor.
I'm not a lawyer either, but is seems to me that the copyright is not going to get you where you seem to be trying to go with this.
Have you written to the offender and asked them to remove the image?
TJ
While this would certainly be a quick and easy way to stop the (presumed) infringement, a cease & desist isn't mandatory. If your objective is to damage the other firm, or to collect monetary damages, swift legal action could work better. Needless to say, an attorney familiar with intellectual property issues should be consulted to determine the best course of action.
As a side-bar ... if you don't own a registered copyright, you can only recover 'actual' damages and any additional profits of the infringer - however, violation of a registered copyright may allow for statutory damages in the sum of not less than $750 or more than $30,000, which may include an award for reasonable attorney's fees.
If the copyright owner sustains the burden of proving that infringement was committed willfully, the court may also increase the award of damages to a sum of not more than $150,000.
A cease and desist letter is not required prior to hiring counsel, and pursuing your legal rights.
All of the above is referenced to U.S. laws ... haven't a clue about elsewhere.
I think those numbers are most likely dream numbers. Is the lawyer taking it as a copyright case on contingency?
I certainly hope that your new lawyer has scolded you for attempting to go about this with copyright instead of trademark. It is pretty much a slam dunk if you have a registered trademark.
As a copyright case, you can get screwed a million different ways. One of the most annoying things that might happen is to not get the legal fees awarded, so you will be out your entire award plus money out of your own pocket to pay the lawyer.
Yes it is on contingency, and I sincerely thank you for your opinion, but you don't know the circumstances... and I think we should leave it at that.
I'm not looking for 'pie-in-the-sky' ... I just want to teach this other company a hard lesson - you don't steal someone else's orginial work. The monetary amount, and time spent pursuing the case is really not that important to me - I have enough of both.
Peter
When I found that someone had taken them, I looked up who registered their URL. The site was another mortgage company and the site was under construction, it didn't have any contact info. I sent the guy an email telling him that he was using our copyrighted materials and to take them off his website. He promptly responded back saying he hired someone to build the site and had no idea the FAQs were stolen (all he had to do is read them, our company name is all over the place). Who ever the developer was has now taken the entire site down - all that's left is an Apache test page.
I guess I should feel flattered that someone that the FAQs were worth stealing. :)
Actually a simpler solution is find out who is hosting your competitors web site have your attorney send the hosting company a cease and desist with proof of copyright ownership (usually a photo copy of the certificate or link to registrationin the copyrights online database is enough)
Most hosting companies have strict polices forbidding copyright infringement an chances are they will
do the following:
1. remove the image
2. send the offender a warning or
3. just shut down the site completely and tell the company to find another host.
From my experience most hosting companies opt for number 3 just to reduce their own liability as quick as possible.
I'm happy - I think they're happy ( that it didn't go to court ) and should be a lesson for all:
Don't take what's not your's ... and don't be afraid to go after those that do. Most of all - register your copyrights!
How did bobthecat waste his time? He got the logo taken down and a settlement of thousands of dollars--over $10,000 if I interpret his post correctly. If he put 20 hours into dealing with this, then he made $500 an hour for that time.
More to the point, protecting a logo isn't directly about money. A logo or a trademarked phrase is an identifier for YOU. If someone else uses it, that dilutes its association with YOU. This is why large companies spend ridiculous amounts of money protecting their trademarks.
In my experience, people who don't value the work of others or who are always looking for a cheap, free, or easy way to get stuff end up getting bitten back pretty badly in the end. The last guy who tried to do this to me ended up losing his business and going bankrupt.
P.S. Big fat congrats, Bobo. Justice rocks.
