QLD Trademark help

[Mella]

Hi
I registered my trademark for a brand it’s a pretty unique work I made up
And have found someone has copied it - on there website they are trying to say they started a year earlier than me- not true I did a research and they definitely started after me
I own the trademark

What do I do
And what would the estimate cost be to get them to take it down?
Thanks in advance

 

[Tim W]

What do I do

You get a lawyer who works in the IP space.

If you have as good a case as you say,
then you will have very good prospects of,
at least, getting an injunction - a court order to make them stop.
If they have made money out of it, when they should not have,
then you may have a shot at getting that, too.

This is not a DIY.
It's a job for a lawyer who knows the field.

Cost estimate?
Not enough here to even ballpark.
A cease and desist letter is relatively cheap. Except they don't always work.
Running an action, that will cost many thousands.
But if you win, then the other side can be made to pay for a lot of it
(that is, your costs, as well as their own. There are many ifs and buts involved).

 

[Rob Legat - SBPL]

It’s worth adding that you should take action of some sort to protect your trade mark. Failure to take action can devalue your mark and make it harder to protect if it happens again. This is in addition to actually using it. Non use can lead to a challenge.

 

[benwaldeck.com]

These type of situations can often be resovled with a properly drafted cease and decist letter that adequately sets out that you have a registered mark, you have evidence of the original design and the orders that could flow from Court orders can be persuasive to get the offending website to remove your logo.

It is not uncommon for for a third-party such as a graphic designer to spteal someone's work and give it to their clients, without thinking they would ever get caught. This leaves the client believing their own it. I am not sure what you mean by " on there website they are trying to say they started a year earlier than me- not true" - I am assuming that might be a "since 2005" or "copyright 2015" or similar...

In any case, the cease and decist letter is part of the geniune steps that the Federal Court requires to be undertaken, before commencing litigation in the Federal Court.

Hope that helps
Ben