What are the consequences for infringing on someone else's trademark? | Dallas Trademark Attorney

Описание: 0:00 - Understanding Trademark Infringement Consequences

0:31 - Take Immediate Action to Stop Infringement

1:03 - Importance of Rebranding Before Being Contacted

2:12 - Preparing for a Potential Rebrand

2:49 - Consequences of Not Stopping Infringement

2:57 - Legal Action for Trademark Infringement

3:38 - Potential Financial Damages from Infringement

3:55 - Risks of Willful Trademark Infringement

4:30 - Impact of Legal Issues on Your Business

5:11 - Advice on Rebranding After Infringement Notification

5:48 - Closing Remarks on Trademark Awareness

What are the consequences for infringing on someone else's trademark?

If you infringe on someone’s trademark, it can get ugly.

There are various legal consequences to trademark infringement, and much of it depends on how litigious the other party is, and how blatant your trademark infringement is.

First, you’ll be asked be the other party to cease and desist your naughty infringement. This means that you’ll be required to rebrand, and on someone else’s timeline.

For a retail store, this means rebranding your signage, your website, and all of your advertising. Things like bags and packaging will have to be rebranded. If you have social media platforms, all of those will have to be redone, and the names changed.

If you have any branded merchandise, the trademark owner can demand that all of that be turned over to them for destruction. They typically demand sales records, so the trademark owner can see how much money you earned by infringing their brand.

You may also be sued for trademark infringement — this is especially true if you don’t stop your naughty behavior.

If the trademark owner sues for trademark infringement in federal court, you’ll have to hire an attorney to file response documents on your behalf. And you’ll want to respond to avoid a default judgment against you. It may cost thousands of dollars to draft and file the response documents, because you need to hire a trademark specialist to do this work for you.

The trademark owner may ask for actual damages — the money that you made by using their trademark — and they may also ask for triple damages for willful trademark infringement. So if you got a cease and desist letter, and didn’t stop, watch out for this, because these are especially ugly.

If the trademark owner asks for triple damages for willful trademark infringement, that means that they take the actual damages, and then triples them, plus they can also get an award for their attorney’s fees. So you get to pay 3 times the owners actual damages, plus their attorneys’ fees, plus your own attorneys’ fees. This is potentially tens of thousands of dollars, so I hope you have very deep pockets. You’ll likely go out of business, and if you didn’t run your business correctly, you can lose the benefit of the corporate protection, and the aggrieved trademark owner may be able to “pierce the corporate veil” and get your own personal assets as well. If you don’t have a corporation, you could lose everything you own.

Ugly, ugly stuff…So please avoid trademark infringement. If you get a cease and desist letter, seek legal advice from a trademark attorney immediately so that your situation can be evaluated. Don’t wait on this stuff; it will not go away on its own, and if you ignore it, you could find yourself facing a trademark lawsuit rather than just a trademark cease and desist letter.

Also, some cease and desist letters assert rights that the trademark owner doesn’t have. One of my clients recently received a cease and desist letter that was completely bogus, so I fired off a strongly-worded response, detailing the owners total lack of rights, and my client never heard from them again. So be wise and have someone else look at it; it might be that the letter is complete nonsense.
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