How to Identify Intellectual Property Infringement?

Determining if your IP rights have been infringed upon is sometimes as easy as performing a basic search. Copyright, trademark, and patent information are all a matter of public record, meaning you can search for various types of intellectual property using the appropriate databases. These databases are often available online making the search even easier. It is important to understand that a search for IP infringement may not always provide accurate results. This may be because the person who infringed upon your work has the property listed under different words that do not match your search.
You can also perform a direct patent search for inventions or published applications. Start your search with the Patent Office. In addition, you may be able to reveal infringement from journal articles and other sources of authoritative literature related to your industry. Lastly, you can perform a patent search on Google using the inventor name, keywords, or other search criteria.
It is also a good idea to consistently monitor your competitors to see if they are infringing on your IP rights. It is fairly common for competitors to try to keep up with the competition by offering goods that are very similar to others in the industry. While this does not always constitute as infringement, it can sometimes mean that your IP rights have been violated. By monitoring your competition, you can catch any infringement activities early on before the issue becomes bigger and more costly to handle.
If you discover that your intellectual property has been used without permission, it is important to act fast to cease the activity as soon as possible. Even if you do not want to sue the person, you should seek legal advice to determine what rights you have and what approach you should take to stop the infringement. Typically, you will want to send a basic request to the infringer to stop using your work. You or your lawyer can write and send out a cease and desist letter to the person or business. When creating this document, be sure to include detailed information about the work being infringed upon and the type of infringement (copyright, patent, etc).
When sending out a cease and desist letter to the offender, be sure to state what action you would like the person to make. For example, you may want the person to stop using your trademark or to remove the infringed upon material from their website. Also include a time limit to respond to your request. Let the offender know that if they do not respond appropriately by the given timeline, you will take further action. This may include taking legal action to stop the activity.

What remedies are available?

IP laws provide for remedies where an IP owner’s rights are infringed. In particular the following remedies are available:
Injunctions – to stop the third party from infringing the owner’s rights.
Damages – to compensate owners for the unauthorized use of their rights.
An order to account for profits made.
In some cases IP infringement may result in the imposition of criminal sanctions such as sanctions for copyright infringement in films (film piracy).