The lawery has send letters to over 100+ of our clients demanding $3000 for 3 items that are very generic in nature and were taken of the internet. We did not know that this generic content was copyrighted by anyone and have immediately removed it off the 100+ sites of our clients. Now we need to have response drafted and these charges of invoice dropped off as we are not aware and the nature of the content being very generic we need to know if there was an infringement as claimed. Please respond back to this email.
Thanks
Andy
Hi Andy,
You should consult an attorney about this in a more official manner than on . is a Q&A site, and you're not going to get the specific legal advice you need.
So I would strongly suggest contacting an attorney in GA.
Good luck.
You should take this situation very seriously. Your belief that items are "generic" will not be a defense to a copyright or trademark infringement suit if, in fact, the three items are protected by copyright or trademark law. Copyright law protects original works---and the standard for "originality" is very easy to meet. An item may seem to you to be generic, but chances are it has sufficient originality to justify protection under copyright law. Further, even though an item may seem generic, it may violate trademarks or trade dress rights of others. If you are sued for copyright infringement (or inducing copyright infringement by more than 100 clients), or trademark infringement (or inducing infringement by your customers), you will face a very expensive law suit. You need to know that copyright and trademark infringement are strict liability offenses--it does not matter if you honestly believed that the items were "generic" and not subject to copyright, trademark, trade dress or other IP protection. If you sold or offered for sale infringing items, you can be held liable for copyright or trademark infringement. Further, you can be required to pay for the attorneys fees of the owners of the copyrights or trademarks. You face major potential civil liability here, and that means you should immediately retain counsel to represent you.
These cease and desist and demand letters are dengerous and must be responded to carefully.
You can see my legal guide on this subject with the links below.
Joshua Burt
The Law Office of Josha A. Burt
Clark AD WilsonPatent Application AttorneyAtlanta, GA ·
As stated previously, this is a matter that must be taken seriously. And, there are not enough facts to provide any comprehensive suggestion. Feel free to contact me through my page if you require assistance from a Georgia attorney.
Although makes it clear to consumers that attorney answers to questions are for general purposes only and do not establish an attorney-client relationship, some attorneys prefer to add their own disclaimers to answers. You can now set your customer disclaimer here and it will be automatically added to your answers.
