What You Need To Do When Your Trademark Is Violated
You know that you have the right to own property and that should never be taken away from you. A trademark is a property in itself and no one should take that away from you. Trademark infringement has become quite common in the US marketplace. When you buy something at the store and find that it has your trademark on it, it must be painful to take in. It is just like seeing your name used on a product and you did not give your consent. This is a violation that you need to report and have it sorted out. Trademark violation can happen both on physical products and online without your consent but you should not accept it. If you are dealing with trademark infringement, you are in the right place. The following are factors to consider if you are a victim of trademark violation.
Before you get too excited and jump right into it, it is important that you know exactly what your trademark rights are. Don’t just jump into conclusions and pursue a case that might not be right. Find all the material available with this information and read thoroughly so that you know what you are getting into. Before you make any rash moves, confirm that your rights have been infringed and find out what you should do about it. When you are very sure that this has happened, you can now begin the process of having it corrected.
It is also important to consider if your trademark is active before doing anything else. It will be much easier to accuse someone of infringement when your trademark is actually in use. Some people might take your trademark just because they didn’t know it existed or didn’t think it was still in use. Because you have not used it in a long time, they might just assume that you won’t notice.
You should know that you will need legal advice if you are going to pursue this. Anything that has to do with your business, you need to seek legal advice. Find yourself a business or property attorney to help you with this. They have knowledge about this and will help you pursue the case. It might be expensive but it is going to be worth it at the end. The two options you have would be to negotiate with the infringer or take legal action.
First of all, send a cease-and-desist order to the infringer. This is much cheaper than taking them to court and battling it out. The cease-and-desist will include a letter sent to the infringer asking them to stop using the trademark in a given amount of time like 5 days.