Have you received an IP complaint demanding content removal? How did you respond?

[MichaelCorfman]

From time to time I receive intellectual property complaints requesting that content be removed from our sites, even in situations where I believe the content is being used appropriately (for example, within reviews or informational listings). These are not especially frequent, but other affiliates have told me they’ve run into similar situations as well.

This morning, for example, I received the following email from a payment processor:

Notice of Unauthorized Publication, Trademark Infringement, and Demand for Immediate Removal — International Company Limited

Dear Sir/Madam,

We act for and on behalf of International Company Limited (the “Company”). We write to put you on formal notice that https://online.casinocity.com/ (the “Website”) is publishing and making available content relating to the Company at, inter alia: https://online.casinocity.com/paymen...ds/interkassa/ (the “Infringing Content”).

The Company has not authorised the Casino City to publish the Infringing Content, to display the Company’s trademarks, or to present any information purporting to describe the Company’s business, products, corporate details, or other activities.

1) Unauthorised use of the Company’s trade marks and protected brand assets

The Infringing Content reproduces and displays the Company’s logo and/or other distinctive brand identifiers (the “Marks”). The Marks are protected intellectual property and include, without limitation, registrations and/or rights held by the Company.

Your unauthorised use of the Marks constitutes a gross violation of intellectual property rights and likely to create confusion among users as to source, affiliation, sponsorship, or endorsement, and unlawfully interferes with the Company’s exclusive right to control the use of its Marks and brand identity.

2) Publication of false and misleading statements

Separately and critically, the Infringing Content contains inaccurate, false, and/or misleading statements about the Company. The Company disputes the accuracy of the published information in full. The dissemination of false statements concerning the Company is harmful, exposes the Company to reputational and commercial damage, and may give rise to additional causes of action and remedies.

3) Unauthorised use and exploitation of Company information and materials

The Casino City is also collecting, reproducing, and using information relating to the Company without permission and for the Casino City’s own commercial purposes (including attracting traffic, monetisation, and/or providing “company data” services). The Company has not granted any licence or consent for the Casino City to compile, republish, or otherwise exploit Company-related content on the Website.

This letter constitutes a notice that the Infringing Content and the unauthorised use of the Marks constitute illegal content. The Company demands that the Casino City to act immediately to remove the illegal content and to prevent its recurrence.

Accordingly, the Company hereby demands that the Casino City, no later than 48 HOURS from receipt of this letter, takes all of the following steps:

1) Remove all the Infringing Content and all content referencing the Company on the Website, including any pages, images, copies, thumbnails, previews, metadata, and embedded or cached instances under your control;
2) Immediately cease and desist from any further use, reproduction, display, or distribution of the Marks (including the Company logo) and any confusingly similar marks;
3) Cease publication and use of any Company-related content or materials (including any text/images derived from Company materials);
4) Provide written confirmation that removal has been completed, including removal from (i) internal search results, (ii) site caches/CDNs under your control, and (iii) any mirrors or syndicated placements controlled by you;
5) Disclose in writing:
(a) the source(s) of the information used to create/populate the Infringing Content (including any third-party data vendors),
(b) whether the Infringing Content has been syndicated or shared with third parties, and if so, identify them.

If you do not comply within the deadline above, the Company reserves the right to take all necessary steps without further notice, including seeking injunctive relief and damages, and submitting complaints to the relevant competent authorities (including, where applicable, the competent Digital Services Coordinator) and initiating court proceedings in the appropriate jurisdiction(s). Nothing in this letter constitutes a waiver of any rights, all of which are expressly reserved.

Sincerely,
International Company Limited

I responded within hours as follows:

Dear Sir/Madam,

Thank you for your message regarding the following page:
https://online.casinocity.com/paymen...ds/interkassa/

Upon receipt of your notice, I initiated a review of the information presented on this page. As part of that process, I asked the team member responsible for maintaining payment method data to verify that the sites currently associated with Interkassa remain accurate and up to date.

If you believe that any specific information on the page is incorrect or misleading, please identify the particular statements or listings you are referring to, and we will review them promptly and make corrections where appropriate.

With respect to your broader request to remove all references to your company and cease use of your brand, we do not agree to that request. We do not believe that the content in question infringes your intellectual property rights. Our site publishes independently researched, factual, and editorial content about companies and services, and such content does not require prior authorization.

Our goal is to ensure that the information we publish is accurate and maintained in good faith. We are happy to review any specific concerns you can identify.

Sincerely,
Michael A. Corfman
CEO, Information Technology Systems, Inc. (operator of Casino City)

In this case, the company is effectively demanding removal of all references to their brand, including factual listings and use of their logo.

For this week's poll, I’m interested in how you handle requests like this. Do you typically reply, and do you make changes? If you’ve received more than one complaint, please answer the poll based on what you typically do.

Besides voting in the poll, please share how often you receive these types of complaints, who they are typically from, your general approach to handling them, and whether and whether your response varies depending on the situation.

Please note this poll is specifically about complaints directly from companies and not from search engines passing on complaints. There is a related poll from a few weeks ago where the poll is about how you respond to complaints from search engines relating to the removal of content from search results:

Has Google ever removed content of yours due to alleged copyright infringement?

Personally, I receive a few intellectual property infringement emails each year and I always respond to them. I've also never received one where I thought it was appropriate to take the requested action, although sometimes taken related steps. As an example, for the complaint above, while I did not make any of the requested changes, I did ask that our team research the payment processor and that we remove any associations with gaming sites that no longer accept it.

Michael

[allfreechips]

I received some pretty serious letters early on from a very American sounding Credit card company, not sent Express but i got them, enough to make me remove the content but after learning more about using information for reviews I agree with your response.

[GlobalPokerSites]

Not personally but a colleague has received letters from some payment providers for being associated with gambling.

[NoDepositCasinos]

A legitimate intellectual property complaint? No. What I have received are messages from people who seem to be running scams, claiming in vague terms that I used material belonging to them, without clearly identifying the material in question, and then demanding payment to settle the matter.

[PaulEchere]

Yeah, that is the only stuff that comes my way sometimes they demand a payment and sometimes they even just want a backlink haha

A legitimate intellectual property complaint? No. What I have received are messages from people who seem to be running scams, claiming in vague terms that I used material belonging to them, without clearly identifying the material in question, and then demanding payment to settle the matter.

[wonderpunter]

About 7 years ago I had one, after i screenshot a video with a logo in the screenshot and uploaded it. I Just deleted it and didn't bother replying

[golfbettingsystem]

In the very early days we had a formal request to remove some logos relating to specific golf tours which we did without any argument. I always found it a little strange though as we were effectively promoting their brand for free, linking to them for free, and encouraging our traffic to visit their sites. Their loss.

[MichaelCorfman]

Yeah, that is the only stuff that comes my way sometimes they demand a payment and sometimes they even just want a backlink haha

Yes, I've gotten a number demanding a backlink. Those I generally choose to completely ignore after a quick look to determine that is what they are after. Pure spam.

Michael