How to Report Intellectual Property Crime

There is a high potential for abuse of intellectual property, from illegal distribution to misrepresenting another's work as your own. However, the laws in the US that cover intellectual property crime have set procedures to report such crimes and to end them.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. Report any intellectual property crime to its owner, if it is not your own property. Intellectual property owners are responsible for being aware of any infringement against their property. An email or phone call should be enough.

2. Issue a letter asking for the party committing infringement to cease and desist. This may be a simple formality if you have asked them previously, but a written letter is crucial to the proceedings.

3. Contact a lawyer. You can ask a lawyer to handle all formalities, such as issuing cease-and-desist letters or take-down notices, or you may choose to wait to engage a lawyer until you need to take the matter to court. There are attorneys who are certified as specialists in intellectual property law, or may have fulfilled extra educational requirements to complete a Master's in Laws in the subject.

4. Send a take-down notice to the Internet service provider (ISP) hosting infringing content if it is posted online. A take-down notice informs the ISP that the material is violating intellectual property law and asks them to remove it from their servers. The webmaster posting the material will have an opportunity to protest the removal.

5. Sue the offender in a court of law. If you can provide proof of registration, the issue will be quickly resolved. However, if you are seeking damages, you will need to demonstrate that you have been financially injured by the infringement.

Tips & Warnings

• Check that a potential intellectual property crime is not actually fair use, and therefore legal under the law. Fair uses include academic scholarship, news reporting and criticism. The user may also have licensed the material and therefore have permission to use it.
• Most ISPs will remove infringing content immediately to protect themselves from litigation.
• In some cases, it is possible to compromise with a potential infringer by creating a licensing agreement. Typically, a person will pay for a license, which can make it an equitable arrangement.
• You cannot simply report intellectual property crime to the police. Because of the nature of the property, an owner must, in effect, defend his or her own property, including suing infringers.