What can I do if Someone is Using My Trademark?

You discover that someone is using your trademark in commerce on goods that are not yours. What can you do and what are your common options for preventing others from continuing to abuse your trademark? Most popular are cease and desist letters. These are letters where we inform the bad actor of your trademark rights and demand that they cease using your trademark. Advantages of cease and desist letters are they’re quick. Disadvantage, there’s actually no penalty and a bad actor can basically ignore your letter if he chooses to. Today, very popular is something called an Amazon takedown letter. We request Amazon to remove bad actors selling your products using your trademark from Amazon-regulated websites. They are quick, inexpensive, it has a punishment, it removes the product. The disadvantage is you may be liable for any overreach performed by Amazon. Finally, we have the infringement suit. It’s a lawsuit. It’s expensive. It’s time-consuming, but gets the bad actor’s attention and definitely provides punishment for the bad behavior. If you have more questions, we suggest consulting with an experienced intellectual property attorney.