Letter of claim for copyright infringement

A letter of claim for copyright infringement is a written demand requiring the infringer to cease using your work, with notice of legal steps if that does not happen.

It happens more often than you would think. A text taken over without attribution. Music that sounds suspiciously like another track. Or a photograph that suddenly turns up on a website. In all those situations the same question arises: is this actually allowed? The short answer is often no. And that is precisely where a letter of claim can be the solution.

What is copyright infringement?

What all the examples above have in common is that copyright is being infringed. When you make a work in which copyright subsists, you are the only one who may determine what happens with that work and on what terms. That control over your copyright arises automatically. You do not have to record or register it to be the rightholder. Copyright in a work arises as soon as the work has its own original character and bears the personal stamp of the maker.

Where someone else uses your copyright-protected work without your permission, you may act against it. That can be done in various ways. In the first place you can send a short message asking the infringer to stop. Where the infringer does not do so, the next step is to send a letter of claim.

Legal steps after a letter of claim

Where no response follows, or the infringement is not stopped, a next step can be to issue proceedings against the other party for the infringement. Depending on the situation that can be done by way of summary proceedings or proceedings on the merits. Where speed is required in stopping the infringement, summary proceedings are the better option. In proceedings, as in the letter of claim, you claim that the infringement be stopped. Damages are also claimed, and payment of the full costs of the proceedings can be claimed. In cases concerning infringement of intellectual property rights there is a special statutory provision under which you can claim reimbursement of the full costs of the proceedings.

Are you faced with unauthorised use of your work, or have you received a letter of claim and are you wondering how strong it is? Then it is sensible not to sit still and to take legal advice. We advise and litigate on matters of this kind regularly, particularly in the creative, media and entertainment sectors. That way your case is strong legally as well as practically.

Received a letter of claim? Do not ignore it, but do check it

Perhaps you are reading this precisely because a letter of claim has landed on your doormat. First of all: do not panic, but do not put the letter aside either. A letter of claim does not mean the claim is correct.

There are three things you want to know before you respond. Does copyright actually subsist in the work concerned? Not everything is protected: an idea or a general, descriptive text, for instance, is not. Does your use then really infringe it? And is the amount claimed realistic? In our practice we regularly see claims pitched too high, and there is often room to negotiate, particularly where you acted in good faith.

What you are better off not doing: ignoring the letter or paying the full amount straight away. Ignoring it usually leads to proceedings and higher costs. Paying on impulse costs you money you may not owe. Have the letter assessed first, and then you know where you stand.