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Bartels Business Lawyers up-date

Since our last newsletter we have had significant success in several cases for our commercial/corporate clients.

In particular one of our builders has had significant problems with unscrupulous competitors trading off its designs and web site material.geoff

We obtained in the Federal Circuit Court against one of the culprits injunctions and damages based on breach of copyright. The defendant was restrained from using or replicating any of our client’s copyright plans, web site material or designs and content for its lawn signs and brochures. All the written material, signs and web based material in the hands of the defendant is to be handed to our client for destruction.

The court awarded $120,000 in proven damages related to the profit the defendant derived from use of our client’s  designs and web based material and $200,000 in special damages (to lay people punitive damages for the moral turpitude in breaching our client’s copyright).

In addition an order was made for the defendant to pay our client’s costs (yet to be assessed) but likely to bring the total to be paid to our client to more than $450,000.

It is a salutary lesson on several fronts.

The web isn’t a source of freely available copy and designs. There is still copyright even if no copyright claim is made.

Breaching copyright not only means the miscreant will run the risk of disgorging the profit made but can suffer injunctions, orders for destruction of material and heavy punitive damages as well as very expensive costs orders. In addition, to the cost of engaging their own lawyers and the general management dislocation in being involved in dispute resolution and court cases.

We had been able to obtain copyright compliance from several other of the copyright breachers without court action. At the same time Geoff has been heavily involved in delivering Professional Development lectures on corporate law themes to fellow legal professionals both in the country centres and the city as the legal CPD season hits its height for 2016.

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