A cease and desist letter is a document sent to an individual or
business to stop alleged illegal activity. The phrase "cease and desist" is a
legal doublet A legal doublet is a standardized phrase used frequently in English legal language consisting of two or more words that are irreversible binomials and frequently synonyms, usually connected by "and", such as "null and void". The order of the words ...
, made up of two near-synonyms. The letter may warn that, if the recipient does not discontinue specified conduct, or take certain actions, by deadlines set in the letter, that party, i.e. the letter's recipient, may be sued.
When issued by a public authority, a cease and desist letter, being "a warning of impending judicial enforcement", is most appropriately called a "cease and desist order".
Usage for intellectual property
Although cease and desist letters are not exclusively used in the area of
intellectual property
Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, cop ...
, particularly in regards to
copyright infringement
Copyright infringement (at times referred to as piracy) is the use of works protected by copyright without permission for a usage where such permission is required, thereby infringing certain exclusive rights granted to the copyright holder, s ...
, such letters "are frequently utilized in disputes concerning intellectual property and represent an important feature of the intellectual property law landscape".
The holder of an intellectual property right such as a
copyright
A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, educatio ...
ed work, a
trademark
A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from othe ...
, or a
patent
A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A ...
, may send the cease and desist letter to inform a third party "of the right holders' rights, identity, and intentions to enforce the rights". The letter may merely contain a licensing offer or may be an explicit threat of a lawsuit. A cease and desist letter often triggers
licensing
A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit).
A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...
negotiations, and is a frequent first step towards
litigation.
Effects on recipients
Receiving numerous cease and desist letters may be very costly for the recipient. Each claim in the letters must be evaluated, and it should be decided whether to respond to the letters, "whether or not to obtain an attorney's opinion letter, prepare for a lawsuit, and perhaps initiate
n case of letters regarding a potential patent infringementa search for alternatives and the development of design-around technologies".
Cease and desist letters are sometimes used to
intimidate
Intimidation is to "make timid or make fearful"; or to induce fear. This includes intentional behaviors of forcing another person to experience general discomfort such as humiliation, embarrassment, inferiority, limited freedom, etc and the victi ...
recipients and can be "an effective tool used by corporations to chill the critical speech of
gripe sites operators".
A company owning a
trademark
A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from othe ...
may send such letter to a gripe site operator alleging a
trademark infringement
Trademark infringement is a violation of the exclusive rights attached to a trademark without the authorization of the trademark owner or any licensees (provided that such authorization was within the scope of the licence). Infringement may ...
, although the actual use of the trademark by the gripe site operator may fall under a
fair use
Fair use is a doctrine in United States law that permits limited use of copyrighted material without having to first acquire permission from the copyright holder. Fair use is one of the limitations to copyright intended to balance the interests ...
exception (in compliance with, in the U.S., the protection of free speech under the
First Amendment
First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1).
First or 1st may also refer to:
*World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement
Arts and media Music
* 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and reco ...
).
Notable cease and desist letters
2010s
Author
Patrick Wensink
Patrick Wensink (born 1979) is an American author.
His novel ''Broken Piano for President'' received increased publicity when the whiskey company Jack Daniel's Properties (a subsidiary of Brown–Forman) sent a politely worded cease-and-desist ...
used
Jack Daniel's
Jack Daniel's is a brand of Tennessee whiskey. It is produced in Lynchburg, Tennessee, by the Jack Daniel Distillery, which has been owned by the Brown–Forman Corporation since 1956.
Packaged in square bottles, Jack Daniel's "Black Label" ...
famous branding without licensing as a cover for his 2012 book ''Broken Piano for President''. Jack Daniel's requested only future printing of the book to have the cover changed and offered compensation.
In 2017, a cease and desist letter sent by
Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fi ...
for an unauthorized ''
Stranger Things''-related
bar event was noted by news outlets such as ''
Fortune'' and ''
Quartz
Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica ( silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical ...
'' for its
humorous wording.
2020s
![ABS-CBN broadcast sign-off on May 5, 2020](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/ABS-CBN_broadcast_sign-off_on_May_5%2C_2020.png)
The
Philippine
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
National Telecommunications Commission
The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC; fil, Pambansang Komisyon sa Telekomunikasyon) is an attached agency of the Department of Information and Communications Technology responsible for the supervision, adjudication and control over a ...
issued a cease and desist letter ordering
ABS-CBN
ABS-CBN (an initialism of its two predecessors' names, Alto Broadcasting System and Chronicle Broadcasting Network) is a Philippine commercial broadcast network that serves as the flagship property of ABS-CBN Corporation, a company unde ...
to
stop broadcasting on May 5, 2020 after its franchise expired the day before (May 4, 2020). At 7:52 pm (PHT), ABS-CBN stopped its broadcast in compliance with the NTC's letter,
signing off all of its free TV and radio stations across the country (
ABS-CBN Channel 2
DWWX-TV, Channel 2, was the flagship VHF station of Philippine television network ABS-CBN. The station was owned and operated by ABS-CBN Corporation with its studio and transmitter located at the ABS-CBN Broadcasting Center, Sgt. Esguerra Av ...
,
S+A Channel 23,
DZMM 630, and
MOR 101.9). The said agency also gave ABS-CBN ten days to explain why its assigned frequencies should not be
recalled. On June 30, 2020, considering that
Channel 43 was also included in the May 5, 2020 shutdown order issued by the NTC against ABS-CBN (although ABS-CBN
CEO Carlo Katigbak
Carlo Joaquin Tadeo Lopez Katigbak (born April 24, 1970) is a Filipino executive and the current president and CEO of Philippine entertainment and giant media conglomerate, ABS-CBN Corporation.
Education
Katigbak attended Ateneo de Manila U ...
insisted that it is part of their
blocktime agreement
In North American broadcasting, a local marketing agreement (LMA), or local management agreement, is a contract in which one company agrees to operate a radio or television station owned by another party. In essence, it is a sort of lease or time ...
with
AMCARA Broadcasting Network), the NTC and
Solicitor General Jose Calida released two alias shutdown orders against
Channel 43 on digital receiver
ABS-CBN TV Plus
ABS-CBN TV Plus (formerly Sky TV+ and stylized as ABS-CBN TVplus, repackaged in 2021 as ABS-CBN TVplus Digital TV Receiver) is a Philippine ISDB-T encrypted digital terrestrial television provider owned and operated by ABS-CBN Convergence, a ...
and
Sky Cable
Sky Cable (stylized as SKYcable) is a cable television service of Sky Cable Corporation in the Philippines. It covers areas across the country with both digital and analog cable services, and it has 700,000 subscribers, controlling 45% of ...
's nationwide satellite service
Sky Direct
Sky Direct was a direct-broadcast satellite subscription television service in the Philippines owned and operated by Sky, a subsidiary of ABS-CBN. Sky Cable had been eyeing for a DBS service and considered on acquiring Dream Satellite TV from A ...
.
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...
sent a cease and desist letter to
CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...
asking them to retract a poll that showed him being 14 percentage points behind his opponent
Joe Biden during the
presidential election
A presidential election is the election of any head of state whose official title is President.
Elections by country
Albania
The president of Albania is elected by the Assembly of Albania who are elected by the Albanian public.
Chile
The pre ...
, prompting ''
The Atlantic
''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science.
It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...
'' to warn about attacks on the media.
In 2021,
Google
Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...
's platform
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
issued a significant number of cease and desist notices to the creators of various music bots on
Discord
Discord is a VoIP and instant messaging social platform. Users have the ability to communicate with voice calls, video calls, text messaging, media and files in private chats or as part of communities called "servers".The developer documenta ...
. Some of the most notable bots to be sent this notice were and Groovy, at the time, the two most popular bots on the platform. These music bots allowed users to request songs and have the bot create a queue. This was done by pulling the audio stream from various
streaming and
video platforms, including YouTube, and then played that audio on the Discord voice channel. Because such music bots did not play any of the advertisements included on the video-hosting site, the company alleged missing revenue for itself and the content uploaders. A spokesperson for Google told
The Verge
''The Verge'' is an American technology news website operated by Vox Media, publishing news, feature stories, guidebooks, product reviews, consumer electronics news, and podcasts.
The website launched on November 1, 2011, and uses Vox Media ...
that Groovy violated YouTube's
terms of service for "modifying the service and using it for commercial purposes". The makers of Groovy had decided to comply with Google's request by shutting down the bot on August 30, 2021. According to estimations, the bot had more than 250 million users.
In 2022,
Disney
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
issued a letter of cease and desist to the creators of ''
Club Penguin Rewritten
''Club Penguin Rewritten'' was a 2017 fangame based on the massively multiplayer online game ''Club Penguin''. It was created by four indie developers as an alternative to the original game, which had been shut down by Disney on March 29, 2017. ...
'', a game that was created as a remake of ''
Club Penguin
''Club Penguin'' was a massively multiplayer online game (MMO), involving a virtual world that contained a range of online games and activities. It was created by New Horizon Interactive (now known as Disney Canada Inc.). Players used cartoon ...
'' after its shutdown on March 31, 2017.
Google
Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...
issued a letter of cease and desist to the creators of YouTube Vanced in 2022. The modded app has since March 13, 2022 been discontinued, with all links being removed and, with no updates, will shut down for good in the next few years.
See also
* ''
Abmahnung
An ''Abmahnung'' (German term for a written warning) is a formal request by one person to another person to forthwith stop a certain behaviour.
If this formal request is made by an attorney, then it is similar to a cease-and-desist letter (but no ...
'', the equivalent of a cease and desist letter in German and Austrian law
*
Lumen (formerly known as Chilling Effects), a collaborative archive to protect lawful online activity from legal threats such as cease and desist letters
*
ABS-CBN franchise renewal controversy, a national dispute in the Philippines regarding the ABS-CBN franchise renewal which involved a cease and desist letter
*
Clameur de haro
The () is an ancient legal injunction of restraint employed by a person who believes they are being wronged by another at that moment. It survives as a fully enforceable law to this day in the legal systems of Jersey and Guernsey, and is use ...
*
Demand letter
*
Legal threat
A legal threat is a statement by a party that it intends to take legal action on another party, generally accompanied by a demand that the other party take an action demanded by the first party or refrain from taking or continuing actions object ...
*
Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act
The Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act (OCILLA) is United States federal law that creates a conditional 'safe harbor' for online service providers (OSP) (a group which includes internet service providers (ISP) and other Inter ...
*
Strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP)
References
External links
Chillingeffects.org€”A joint project between the
Electronic Frontier Foundation and several universities to monitor uses and abuses of intellectual property rights on the internet. Contains a database of cease-and-desist letters to which either senders or recipients can contribute.
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cease And Desist
Legal terminology
Letters (message)