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Step 1
Do your research. Find out who the person and company are who are violating your copyright. See when they started doing the same thing. Determine whether it is possible that they came up with the same idea on their own. Copyright law is different from patent law. A person can create the same work and use it without violating your copyright.
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Step 2
Find out where the person resides. There are U.S. copyright laws and there are international treaties related to copyright infringement. The international treaties are helpful, but it is difficult to sue someone located in another country because you must establish jurisdiction over the person first. This is a complex and costly process. If the person is located in the U.S., you have more options.
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Step 3
Contact the copyright infringer and tell them that you believe there is a violation. If he fails to do anything about it, send a cease and desist letter. If this fails, hire an attorney and go forward with a lawsuit.
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Step 4
Lean on any sponsors and affiliates of the violator to do something. If there are several people involved in a project, they may want to clear any legal obstructions.
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Step 5
File your work with the copyright office. Safeguard online text so no one can copy it. Hide programming information from the general public, if this is involved in the copyrighted material. Protect your work and prevent people from copying it so you don't have to deal with a copyright violator.
