International Intellectual Property Legal Blog

If you own a business and you find out that another company or party is using your intellectual property (IP) without your permission, whether domestically or internationally, you probably want to take action to secure your rights. If so, you will likely need to understand what a cease and deist letter is. Many IP cases start by sending one of these documents to an infringing party to alert them of their infringement and to stop.

QuickBooks explains that a cease and deist letter should consist of several important parts. You need to address the letter to a particular person or a position within the infringing company and explain the instance where and when you saw your IP being used without your permission. The letter should specify a clear action for the other party to take. For example, you may want the other party to stop using your company logo on the party’s website. The action should come with an ultimatum that is reasonable. You should make it clear that you may pursue further action if the party does not comply.

Providing appropriate protection for your concepts is just one part of running a successful business. But when working to secure your market share, as well as your bottom line, you must remain alert to those who try to sneak in to claim the benefits of your labor.

In some cases, patent trolls may be waiting to sue your company for infringing on their conceptual rights, regardless of whether what you offer has anything to do with their patent in question. Since patent litigation can be complex, time-consuming and costly, many companies simply agree to settle, rather than engaging in a seemingly unnecessary court battle. However, it is possible that a company claiming to have a patent on your product does not hold its weight in actual worth.

When you own and operate your own business, making smart hiring decisions is arguably just as important as protecting your business’s trade secrets. In fact, both efforts go hand-in-hand, because the people you hire to represent you are the same ones you must entrust with the ideas, formulas and other elements of your business that give you a leg up on the competition. At Bilicki Law, we recognize that drafting a strong nondisclosure agreement is your first line of defense against trade secret litigation, and we have helped many people navigate this and other issues relating to protecting intellectual property.

According to Forbes, having a solid nondisclosure agreement in place is important anytime you plan to grant employees access to proprietary information about the inner-workings of your business. Such an agreement need not be long and unnecessarily complicated. Instead, the most effective and strongest nondisclosure agreements are often those that run only a few pages in length or less.

The rights of business owners are violated in all sorts of ways, and infringement is a serious problem. Unfortunately, infringement takes on many forms and can impact companies across a variety of industries. When people think of infringement, they may envision motion pictures, trademark issues or computer code. However, it is essential to realize some of the other ways in which infringement occurs. For example, infringement may involve chemicals, such as the misuse of an innovative chemical product. If your business is struggling with patent infringement, it is crucial to look into potential legal solutions as soon as possible.

There are many different ways in which patent infringement involving chemicals may transpire. For example, perhaps a pharmaceutical company has come out with a new drug only to find that their hard work has been stolen. Or, perhaps a company has created an innovate chemical, such as a de-icing product, only to find that a competitor has taken advantage of their hard work. There are multiple industries and types of businesses which may have to watch out for patent infringement in this regard, and other types of infringement that could threaten the company as well.