What to Do When You Receive a Cease-and-Desist Letter

A demand letter is alarming, but it is not a verdict. Here's how to respond calmly and protect your position.

Few things rattle a business owner like a cease-and-desist letter alleging intellectual property infringement. The letterhead is intimidating, the language is often aggressive, and the deadline is usually short. The natural instinct is one of two extremes: panic and comply immediately to make the problem go away, or fire back in anger. Both reactions can be mistakes, and both can weaken your position. A measured, informed response protects you far better than either — and the first hours after a letter arrives are exactly when a clear head matters most.

Don't Ignore It — and Don't Overreact

Ignoring a legitimate demand is rarely wise. Silence can escalate matters, and in some circumstances it can increase your exposure by suggesting you were indifferent to the other side's rights. At the same time, a demand letter is an assertion, not a judgment. It represents one party's view of the facts and the law, written to be as persuasive and as alarming as possible. Many letters deliberately overstate the strength of the sender's rights in the hope that the recipient will simply capitulate. The correct first step is neither to comply nor to counterattack, but to assess.

Preserve Everything and Say Little

Before you respond substantively, resist the urge to explain, argue, or apologize. Anything you say can shape the dispute that follows, and an offhand admission made in an attempt to be reasonable can be used against you later. Preserve all relevant documents, emails, files, and records — deleting anything, even routinely, can look like spoliation once a dispute is live. Avoid making changes to your product, marketing, or operations that could be read as an admission of wrongdoing until you understand your position. Buying yourself a short, professional acknowledgment of the letter while you take advice is almost always better than an immediate substantive reply.

Mind the Deadline — and the Record

Cease-and-desist letters almost always impose a deadline, and those deadlines are worth taking seriously even when the underlying demand looks weak. A deadline is not a court order, and it can often be extended with a brief, professional request for more time to consider the matter. But letting it pass in silence can signal indifference and, in some situations, invite the sender to escalate to formal proceedings sooner than they otherwise would. The safer course is to acknowledge the letter promptly, confirm that you are reviewing it, and ask for a reasonable extension if you need one — all without conceding anything about the merits.

It is equally important to control who inside your organization responds and what they say. An email fired off by a well-meaning colleague, a defensive social media post, or a change quietly made to a product page can all become part of the record and complicate your position later. Route everything through a single, considered channel, keep internal discussion of the dispute confidential where you can, and resist the temptation to argue the case in public before you have taken advice.

Assess the Real Risk

The heart of any response is an honest assessment of the merits. We examine whether the right being asserted is actually valid and enforceable, whether your activity genuinely infringes it, and what defences may be available to you. Frequently the sender's rights turn out to be narrower than the letter claims, or your use falls outside their scope, or the asserted right is vulnerable to challenge. In many cases the strongest possible response is a confident, well-reasoned letter explaining precisely why there is no infringement — a reply that quietly closes the matter rather than inflaming it.

Choose the Right Strategy

Once the risk is clear, the range of sensible options comes into focus. Depending on the assessment, the right move might be a reasoned rebuttal that stands your ground, a negotiation toward a licence or a coexistence arrangement that lets both parties continue, a modest design-around that removes the point of contention at low cost, or preparation of a robust defence if litigation looks likely. There is rarely only one path, and the best one depends as much on your commercial priorities as on the strict legal position. Sometimes it is worth fighting; sometimes a small change is far cheaper than being right.

By SRM Intellectual Property Law — SRM Insights