10 questions when someone says you infringed their rights

An unexpected complaint can make a small project feel suddenly dangerous. You may want to apologize, delete everything, argue right away, or never open the message again. None of those reactions tells you whether the claim is right. Slow down, find out exactly what is being claimed, and then decide.

Read the ten questions first and notice which ones feel true for you. Then read the answers. One thing cannot wait: if you have been served court papers, a Copyright Claims Board notice, or are about to sign a counter-notification, talk to a lawyer who handles copyright or trademark disputes before that deadline passes.

The ten questions

1. Does a confident legal letter make me feel that the sender must already have proved the case?
2. Would seeing a registration number make me assume that every use of the same word or image is forbidden?
3. Am I relying on ‘I paid for it’ without remembering what I actually bought?
4. Do I believe that crediting the creator or earning no money makes a complaint impossible?
5. Would deleting the post and the files feel like the safest way to make the problem disappear?
6. If a message looks suspicious or arrives by email, am I tempted to ignore everything in it?
7. Do I think a counter-notice is just a button that asks customer support to reconsider?
8. Am I assuming that offering money, apologizing, or signing a short document will necessarily close the matter?
9. If I cannot afford a full legal case, do I assume no useful legal help is possible?
10. Am I treating the possibility of having made a mistake as a reason not to explain my side?

Once you have finished the ten questions, continue below to read the answers.

The answers

1. Does a confident legal letter make me feel that the sender must already have proved the case?

A demand letter states the sender's position. It is not a court decision. The USPTO says that receiving a cease-and-desist letter or email, without more, does not mean you have been sued, and it lists four ways to respond: reply and deny infringement if you have a basis, reply and ask for specific evidence, negotiate a license or an agreement, or ask a court to declare that you do not infringe. 1 The sender may have a strong claim, an incomplete picture, or a wrong premise. Your job is to find out which. Take the letter seriously, and do not treat it as proof.

2. Would seeing a registration number make me assume that every use of the same word or image is forbidden?

No. A registration matters, but it does not settle the dispute. To win a U.S. trademark infringement case, the owner must prove a valid mark, priority over you, and that your use is likely to confuse consumers about source. Courts look at how similar the marks are, how related the goods or services are, how and where they are sold, who buys them, any actual confusion, your intent and the strength of the mark. 2 A federal registration on the Principal Register gives the owner a presumption of validity and ownership, which you can rebut in court. 2 The reverse is also true: a mark with no registration can still carry common-law rights from actual use. 1

Check the right being asserted before you react to it:

• For a trademark, search the USPTO trademark database and open the record in TSDR (Trademark Status and Document Retrieval) using the registration or serial number in the letter. Note the owner, the status and the goods or services it covers. 1
• For a copyright, search the Copyright Public Records System at publicrecords.copyright.gov, which covers 1898–1945 and 1978 to the present. 10

3. Am I relying on ‘I paid for it’ without remembering what I actually bought?

Buying a print, a file or access to a library does not, by itself, give you the copyright. U.S. law separates owning a physical or digital copy from owning the rights in the work, and a transfer of copyright is valid only in a signed writing. 3 A stock-image license may cover one use and exclude another, or belong to a different person or account. Find the receipt and the license terms that applied on the day you got the material. Put them side by side with how you actually used it: the medium, the number of copies, commercial or not, and who is named as licensee.

4. Do I believe that crediting the creator or earning no money makes a complaint impossible?

No. Both facts count, and neither ends the question. U.S. fair use weighs four factors: the purpose and character of your use, the nature of the work, how much you took, and the effect on the market for the original. Courts are more likely to find noncommercial uses fair, but not all noncommercial uses are fair, and there is no safe number of words, lines or seconds. 4 Credit works the same way. Every Creative Commons license requires attribution, but some also limit you to noncommercial use or to unadapted copies. 11 Credit given on a commercial project does not cure a breach of a noncommercial license. Write down which facts help you and which do not.

5. Would deleting the post and the files feel like the safest way to make the problem disappear?

Taking content down and destroying records are two separate decisions. You can stop a disputed use without erasing the evidence. Before you change anything, save:

• the complaint and every message about it;
• the version you published, with its date and URL;
• your source files and where you got the material;
• any license, receipt or permission;
• your correspondence with the creator or the platform.

If the dispute reaches the Copyright Claims Board (CCB), each party must preserve all relevant documents, must not destroy materials related to a claim or defense, and must hand over documents the other side needs, not only the ones that help. 5 A party that still does not produce required documents after a CCB order can be sanctioned, including by the CCB drawing an adverse inference about the facts those documents would have shown. 5 For a step-by-step capture routine, see Saving evidence while the facts are still available.

6. If a message looks suspicious or arrives by email, am I tempted to ignore everything in it?

Verify the sender, then deal with the substance. The USPTO notes that some cease-and-desist letters are sent hoping recipients will be intimidated into stopping or paying when they do not need to. It also warns that ignoring a real one carries risk: if you are later found liable, a court may decide you acted recklessly and award extra damages. 1 Check the sender through contact details you find yourself, not the ones in the message, and keep the original while you check.

Know what a formal step looks like:

• A federal lawsuit is served on you as a summons and a complaint. The summons names the court, has a case number and tells you when to respond. 1 The standard federal summons gives you 21 days after service to serve an answer or a motion, and warns that if you fail to respond, judgment by default will be entered against you. 9
• A Copyright Claims Board claim arrives as a notice of an official government proceeding. You almost always have 60 days from service to opt out, online at dockets.ccb.gov or on the paper form; you do not need to give a reason. Opting out ends the CCB case, but the claimant can still sue you in federal court. 8

7. Do I think a counter-notice is just a button that asks customer support to reconsider?

No. YouTube calls a counter notification "a legal request" to reinstate content removed after a copyright claim, and it is meant only for removals made by mistake or misidentification, including content covered by an exception such as fair use. 6 Before you file, know what you are signing:

1. YouTube is legally required to share your counter notification with the claimant, and it asks for your legal name, street address and phone number. If disclosing that is a concern, an authorized representative such as an attorney can file for you. 6
2. You consent to the jurisdiction of the federal district court for the district where your address is. 6
3. You swear, under penalty of perjury, that you have a good-faith belief the content was removed by mistake or misidentification. 6
4. The claimant then has 10 U.S. business days to show it has taken legal action; if it does not, the content is reinstated. 6

Do not submit false information: misusing the process, such as sending fraudulent documents, can get your account terminated. 6 Disagreement with the claim is not enough; file only if you can say what the mistake was, such as a license you hold, a fair use, or a wrong match. Responding to a platform complaint or counter-notice walks through the filing.

8. Am I assuming that offering money, apologizing, or signing a short document will necessarily close the matter?

Not unless the document says so. Negotiating a license or an agreement is one of the responses the USPTO lists. 1 Read any proposal before you agree to it and answer these questions in writing:

• Is the payment a license fee, a settlement of all claims, or only part of a larger demand?
• Which works, uses and time periods does it cover?
• Does it bind you to future promises, such as never using a word again or removing other people's work?
• Does it release you from any further claims about this use?

If the answers are not in the document, ask for them to be added before you sign.

9. If I cannot afford a full legal case, do I assume no useful legal help is possible?

No. Help comes in sizes. The Copyright Claims Board lists law school clinics and pro bono organizations and marks what each offers: a referral to a free or reduced-cost lawyer, a one-time consultation, limited-scope help where a lawyer advises you while you do the filings, or full representation. 7 Many accept only clients in certain states, so check where each one works before you contact it. 7 You do not need a lawyer to respond to a CCB claim. 7 For a trademark letter, the USPTO points to state and national bar association directories; look for a U.S.-licensed attorney who focuses on trademark litigation. 1 Ask for one defined piece of help, such as "Is this deadline real and what should I file?", rather than for someone to take on the whole dispute.

10. Am I treating the possibility of having made a mistake as a reason not to explain my side?

No. Write a short, honest timeline: what you made, where the material came from, what permission you had or thought you had, when you learned of the complaint, and what you have done since. Include the facts that hurt you. A complete account often shows that the real disagreement is narrower than the accusation. Then choose a path: correct the use, defend it, negotiate, or combine them.

You can take a complaint seriously without accepting every claim in it. Start with the facts, not with a verdict about yourself.