Legal Question in Intellectual Property in Arizona

Stolen original material from web page - is this actionable?

My daughter is a personal trainer and she specializes in training golfers (focused physical conditioning).

A company she was contracted to provide services to is using her excercise program as their own. They are also using her printed materials (ad, class description) verbatim from her web site and advertising it as their own.

There was nothing in their contractual arrangement that provides for their assumption or use of their materials. No non-disclosure agreement was signed by either party.

She can prove ownership of the written materials. This may be costing her business and income.

Is this actionable as in the theft of copywrited material or intellectual property? The web page is copywrited (actualy, not registered but it says ''copyright''.

Is this something that an attorney may take on contingency? Should at least a ''cease and desist letter'' be sent from an attorney?

Thanks


Asked on 9/13/07, 3:59 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Justin Lampel Lampel & Associates, P.C.

Re: Stolen original material from web page - is this actionable?

depending on the value of the material, you may want to file a copyright application in the Copyright Office and then send out a cease and desist letter. These are not too expensive. If the infringer ignores the cease and desist you must determine if it is worth the expense to file an action for copyright infringement.

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Answered on 9/13/07, 4:08 pm


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