The case of the ignored watermark

On this side of the pond, a recent change in how the courts work has enabled small claims to proceed in the High Court without the risk of losing your house to pay the legal fees of the other side if the case goes against the claimant. It's called the Intellectual Property and Enterprise Court Small Claims Track.

On the 17th of April my first case was heard. I have written up the events leading to and including court and judgment:-

http://simonbrownimages.com/casejudgment.html

Judgment made it very clear that using a watermarked image was flagrant and attracted higher damages.

This is good news. I'm sure the time and effort that you had to put in to travel to court, prepare documentation etc wouldn't be covered by the total amount awarded, but its refreshing to know that you won and that the more cases like this that end up in court, it will stop others from thieving.

It is indeed good news.

The UK has lacked actual judgments on things like this...low value stuff tha the hourly-rate-way-beyond-likely-damages IP lawyers would not touch it and if they did and the claimant lost then the defendant's legal costs would swallow a small housing estate, not just the house.

Now individuals can seek redress knowing thelr potential losses are restricted to around £240 or so. I know I am not the only one prepared to seek justice and every judgment helps explain to infringers just where things lie with respect to their actions.

Having said that, it requires tenacity and stamina and to be quite frank the adversarial process is a miserable place. But it won't stop me recovering my losses. I'm using an agent for UK stuff and a combination of an agent and contingency IP attorney for anything in the US.

If anyone knows a good IP lawyer in France who could take cases on contingency then do please contact me. The driot d'auter rules have been overlooked in that territory by a few and I would like to see if recovery is possible. Same with Switzerland...

I know what costs are like as My wife works for a large UK patent and trademark attorneys. I will ask her if she has a contact in France.

The driot d'auter

I do not know any lawyer, but if you want to spell it right, it is : droit d'auteur.

Thank you for sharing your story and good luck.

Hello. I don't know this lawyer / photographer, but I'm following her blog where she talks about IP rights. She also wrote books about how to sell your photos (from IP and tax laws point of view mainly). Here is her contact web page

http://blog.droit-et-photographie.com/2753-2/