interesting. I'm curious why they bother going after so many small developers. There must be some kind of negative effect long-term there on their perception in the tech ecosystem etc. Bored in-house lawyers?
How to deal with receiving a cease-and-desist letter from Big Tech
41–50 of 209 posts
Re: How to deal with receiving a cease-and-desist letter from Big Tech
#42This is a great writeup. I am not a lawyer, but I've received several C&Ds for various things over the decades. The first one scared me to death. The second and subsequent ones did not, because I understood what they were: just the company saying "I don't like what you're doing". When I receive a C&D, the first thing I do is talk to my attorney and go over what the C&D is complaining about. If I think I'm doing somet…
Multiple C&Ds?! You make me realize I might not be living the adventure I should be.
I think I've just been doing this for a long time.
Re: How to deal with receiving a cease-and-desist letter from Big Tech
#43The premise of this article is that you somehow have to respond to it which is nuts. If the letter is ridiculous (e.g. citing terms of service you did not sign) then you're better off to ignore it and not waste money on legal fees. Also everyone who suggests getting a lawyer has probably not had to hire one in the past. With very few exceptions they will tell you it "depends" and maybe give you a few legal terms you…
Not sure we read the same article. The first point under "Decide how to respond" is "1. Ignore" (although it suggests this is risky if ignore includes continuing what lead to the C&D)
#1 is to "pause immediately". Much further down in the article they get to the ignore option.
Re: How to deal with receiving a cease-and-desist letter from Big Tech
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
What's the proper course of action if you don't have an attorney?
I'm going to avoid the snarky "hire an attorney" answer but once you get past that necessary first step I do have a few tips: * get comfortable reading legal documents, this will allow you to have more intelligent conversations with your attorney * don't let your attorney make your business decisions, one of their jobs is to point out risks, one of your jobs (owner/ceo/leadership) is to figure out how to mitigate ris…
I appreciate that. As someone with a hobby making software, I can see the need for hiring at some point but I don't even know where to start. Do you just look up one online and call and say "I got a nasty letter, will you be my attorney"? Is there some kind of ongoing subscription cost to keep being "my attorney" or just pay per hour when you have an issue?
Re: How to deal with receiving a cease-and-desist letter from Big Tech
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
What's the proper course of action if you don't have an attorney?
I'm going to avoid the snarky "hire an attorney" answer but once you get past that necessary first step I do have a few tips: * get comfortable reading legal documents, this will allow you to have more intelligent conversations with your attorney * don't let your attorney make your business decisions, one of their jobs is to point out risks, one of your jobs (owner/ceo/leadership) is to figure out how to mitigate ris…
I often need legal support for things (CFAA threat every few years and litigation for FOIA work), and this list matches my experiences. A lot of the work is just building a relationship with an attorney or firm you can trust.
Re: How to deal with receiving a cease-and-desist letter from Big Tech
#46Used to periodically get a c&d email from FB lawyers for some harmless software I published. Always completely ignored it, not even responding to acknowledge receipt. It eventually stopped. I figure they gave up and focused their efforts on targets who showed they would be responsive to threats. It was 100% bullying.
Even acknowledging receipt gives them a lot of power.
Remember that they probably have a list of hundreds or thousands of C&D's to send, and if you don't respond they would probably need to file a john doe lawsuit to get your identity from your ISP, and it's unlikely that all that effort is worth it to them.
Re: How to deal with receiving a cease-and-desist letter from Big Tech
#47Used to periodically get a c&d email from FB lawyers for some harmless software I published. Always completely ignored it, not even responding to acknowledge receipt. It eventually stopped. I figure they gave up and focused their efforts on targets who showed they would be responsive to threats. It was 100% bullying.
Good ole Perkins Coie.
Re: How to deal with receiving a cease-and-desist letter from Big Tech
#48This is a great writeup. I am not a lawyer, but I've received several C&Ds for various things over the decades. The first one scared me to death. The second and subsequent ones did not, because I understood what they were: just the company saying "I don't like what you're doing". When I receive a C&D, the first thing I do is talk to my attorney and go over what the C&D is complaining about. If I think I'm doing somet…
Multiple C&Ds?! You make me realize I might not be living the adventure I should be.
Before we sold our fintech SaaS startup in 2015, we received a C&D from Dealogic and I thought, wow, we've made it into the big leagues! My adrenaline wore off pretty quickly though, because after our attorney sent them a defiant letter warning their London law firm to not mess with a Texas LLC, we never heard from them again. We were flying below the radar, so we just surmised some Dealogic customer had showed a Dealogic sales rep our product, and they probably carpet bomb anytime they see anyone playing anywhere near their entrenched & wildly expensive product.
Re: How to deal with receiving a cease-and-desist letter from Big Tech
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
Multiple C&Ds?! You make me realize I might not be living the adventure I should be.
Before we sold our fintech SaaS startup in 2015, we received a C&D from Dealogic and I thought, wow, we've made it into the big leagues! My adrenaline wore off pretty quickly though, because after our attorney sent them a defiant letter warning their London law firm to not mess with a Texas LLC, we never heard from them again. We were flying below the radar, so we just surmised some Dealogic customer had showed a Dea…
Never heard about Dealogic so I just Googled -- the title of the click says:
> Dealogic: A trusted partner to top financial firms worldwide
Oh well, I probably don't need to dig deeper to know what it does then.
Re: How to deal with receiving a cease-and-desist letter from Big Tech
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
Multiple C&Ds?! You make me realize I might not be living the adventure I should be.
They're usually more boring than you might realize. For example, if your new business's trademark is similar to an established company's.
Yes. Most of the C&Ds I've received have been mundane. My favorite one was over a set of game rules that I wrote that were very vaguely similar to a board game that was on the market.
That one was so ridiculous that I didn't consult my attorney at all about it. I just told the company to sue me. I never heard from them again.