IP Law
scroll downDid you come across the pictures, music or other content while surfing the Internet, which you created? Can you imagine, that a high-priced advertising campaign uses your content and makes a huge profit from it without any compensation for you?
A national newspaper is using your last blog post for their latest news without to mention you as the author of that? An online store, a travel agency or a hotel uses your picture to advertise their products and travel offers?
Illegal copying is almost impossible to avoid and this is why the number of unlawfully used work is growing very fast along with the development of the Internet and the technical possibilities.
overview
Your rights- Copyright law
It’s not about a small nuisance, but about the violation of the applicable law (the Copyright Act). The copyright law is supposedly the most frequently broken law in the Internet. According to German law, there is always a violation of the copyright law, when a piece of work is used without the consent of the author. A download of somebody else’s work violates under certain conditions the author’s right of reproduction and an upload the right of public accessibility. The author has the right, that the unauthorized user removes the content for good. He also has a claim for a cease and desist declaration. The user declares, that he will not use the piece of work or make it publicly available in the future. In addition, there is supposedly also an interesting point for you- claim for damages. It often includes also the attorney’s fee. So don’t accept it as it is, if the results of your work are spread all over the Internet without your permission! Fechner Legal will help you to enforce your rights. Besides that, the copyright infringement doesn’t need to be committed in Germany. If it happened abroad, especially in the countries of the European Union, there’s a good chance for prosecuting it also in Germany to assert your claim.
It also works the other way round. As a victim of a copyright infringement, you don’t need to live in Germany to take our help. We already have clients from almost every part of the world, whose rights we enforce throughout the borders of Germany.
services
What to do?
The first step is in most of the cases is a warning letter written by your lawyer. It calls on the user to remove the infringement and refrain it in the future. First, there is a cease and desist declaration with penalty clause demanded. The user declares not to use your content in the future and to pay a contractual penalty if he ever does it. In a normal case, the claim for damages is always asserted along with that. A little bit about the warning letter in general. They mostly have a bad reputation. It is often described as a mania of warning letters. But it is exact the opposite of that. By the legal institution of warning letter, the legislator created an excellent possibility to eliminate illegal situations by an out-of-court settlement. Each of involved parties, the copyright holder, as well as the guilty party has an effective, lower-cost and rapid possibility to make the illegal condition disappear.
Win the case!
Don’t let yourself down because of data thieves and put your anger and the copyright violation in our experienced hands. Get in touch with us today and let us advise you. Fechner Legal takes care, that you are not only right, but also win the case.
Did you receive a cease and desist letter?
Due to our broad experience in assertion of claims we are ready to represent you competently if you received a cease and desist letter. There are often a lot of good defence possibilities. The same applies here: don’t wait to contact us!