What is cease and desist letter?

A cease and desist letter is a warning given from (or on behalf) the owner of trademark/ copyright/ patent/ design requesting the recipient to cease and desist their infringing activities, or at the very least, ask them to stop their actions or else face potential legal action. However, a cease and desist letter is not a court order, that means the letter its own is not legally enforceable. Although there are no immediate repercussions to non-compliance, legal action may take place if the recipient ignores it.

Cease and desist letters don’t have to follow a specific format, but they do have some features in common, they request the infringers to agree to the following conditions:

• To terminate all infringing activities
• To agree not to engage in any further infringing activities
• Disclose information of the infringing products, including receipts and invoices
• Deliver up all the infringing products; and
• Compensate the losses and costs of the rights owner

A cease and desist letter normally includes information and documents which prove the rights of the rights owner, such as patent number, copyright registration number or trademark registration number.

Cease and desist letter can be written by anyone, it can either be written by the intellectual property rights owner themselves or a law firm.

Responding to cease and desist letter

There is no legal penalty for ignoring a cease and desist letter, however, it is inadvisable to do. If you receive a cease and desist letter, the first step that you need to take is to show it to an attorney. The attorney will evaluate whether the cease and desist claim is legitimate.

• The following are the steps to respond to a cease and desist letter:
• Read the letter thoroughly to ensure you understand the claims.
• Get legal advice from your attorney on whether the claims are legitimate. The attorney can advise you what to do next, such as fight the claim. They can help to evaluate how strong the sender’s case is over your case, and therefore help you to draft a response.
• Choose your response by deciding whether or not to accept the claims or deny it. Accepting the claims won’t involve so much work, and denying the claims may involve proving your rights by presenting the evidence of your own.
• To prepare your response, you can either draft the respond yourself using a template online or your attorney can draft the response for you.
• You may need to negotiate the final agreement with the rights owner even you chose to accept the claims. By denying the claims, you must negotiate with the owner to find the solution that works for both parties.