Unauthorized use of your intellectual property is a serious matter, and you need to resolve that quickly in order to protect your company’s best interests. Intellectual property litigation may be necessary to accomplish that, but in order to be successful, you need to be prepared. Here, we’ll go over what you can do to get ready to pursue IP litigation.
First Consider – Do You Need to Litigate?
When facing an intellectual property violation or dispute, you should first ask yourself if litigation is truly necessary. In many cases, lawsuits are drawn out, expensive, and messy, and they can easily ruin your business relationships and drain valuable resources.
In some cases, mediation, arbitration, or even an offer of collaboration may resolve the issue to everyone’s benefit. Even a courteous cease and desist letter may end the issue straightaway without the need for a lawsuit at all.
If none of these methods seem like they will resolve the issue, you still need to make sure your IP is protected. In this case, litigation may well be necessary.
Information
If you have decided to go through with pursuing litigation in defense of your intellectual property, there is some information you should have on hand to get started. This includes:
- Information on all your IP: It’s important that you have all the necessary information at hand on the intellectual property in question, whether that’s a copyrighted work, trade secret, or patented product. In addition, you should also bring descriptions of all your other IP as well since that could help your case.
- Written documentation: The more documentation you have on your intellectual property, the better. In fact, long before litigation becomes an issue, you should make sure all copyrights, patents, and other forms of IP are registered in the appropriate avenues and carefully recorded. This will lend a great deal of authority to your case and help secure success.
- Correspondence with dates: Correspondence regarding your IP and the violation should be kept well documented with dates and times recorded. The timing of communication is often critical when pursuing these cases, so be as precise as possible with your recordkeeping.
- Information about the case itself: What was the nature of the IP violation? Who were the parties involved? When and how did it happen? Make sure you are able to communicate clearly the exact nature of the case to your attorney. Details can make or break a case, so be thorough.
Much of this information should be carefully kept well in advance. When the need for IP litigation arises, it will often be too late to make sure you have the right documentation in place.
Legal Aid
Once you have all your information together—or perhaps even before then—contact an experienced intellectual property attorney. An IP lawyer, such as us here at Hart & David, will have the skill and experience to guide you through the litigation process and make sure everything goes as smoothly as possible. If you are in need of legal assistance with an intellectual property case, contact our attorneys as soon as possible.