At Traverse Internet Law, we counsel web hosts on how to handle trademark and copyright claims. That's become an even hotter topic in recent weeks as a jury in California returned a $32.4 Million Judgment on behalf of Louis Vuitton against a web hosting company for hosting a website that was allegedly selling knock-offs. The judgment is not surprising and the principles of law nothing new. But you would have thought the sky was falling.
The consumer rights groups and their fanatical followers are all over the web expressing outrage. It's as if they do not understand the laws of copyright and trademark infringement. So I will reiterate what I have been telling clients for many years: if you receive notice of a trademark infringement you had better act decisively and make a decision about whether you want to defend yourself in court or drop the customer.
It really is that simple. Now, if you want to make it complicated and confusing, start reading the free speech and anti-intellectual property lawyers online. They'll encourage you to do otherwise. But I guarantee you if they were representing you they would mirrror my advice. If these public interest lawyers and professional professors had to stand behind the absurd "advice" they spew in their blogs and answer to their malpractice insurance carrier their advice would change overnight.
And that wrong-headed advice...that's truly the big fraud that victimizes the typical netizen and can trigger cataclysmic events. And I can think of 32 Million of them right now.
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