Letter · Intellectual Property — Patents, Trade Marks, Copyright, Designs
Response to an IP infringement letter of demand (with unjustified threats position)
A reply for the recipient of an infringement letter about a trade mark, patent, copyright or design: holding position, request for particulars and the registration or chain of title, the client's grounds, without-prejudice options, and a reservation of rights over unjustified threats.
- Kind
- Letter. A letter or email you adapt and send.
- Where it applies
- Australia
- AI use
- Yellow AI can help in set ways. A lawyer checks specific points before use.
- Law stated as at
- 18 October 2026
- Status
- Maintained. Checked on 18 October 2026 against the 3 authorities it cites, for Australia.
- Version
- 1
- Source
- Written for this library
When to use it
Use when a client receives a cease-and-desist or letter of demand alleging IP infringement. Send a holding reply quickly if a deadline is close, then a substantive reply once the rights and the client's use have been checked. Where the threat has been sent to the client's customers or retailers, consider an unjustified threats claim early.
How AI may be used
AI may summarise the demand, list the rights asserted and the deadlines, and draft the request for particulars; the lawyer decides the client's position, the grounds of defence and whether to assert unjustified threats.
AI may
- Summarise the letter of demand: rights asserted, acts alleged, demands and deadlines
- List the registrations, numbers and owners asserted, for checking against the official registers
- Draft the holding reply and the request for particulars and documents
AI must not
- Must not state that the client does not infringe, or that a right is invalid, without the lawyer's analysis
- Must not make admissions, offers or undertakings in the open letter
- Must not threaten unjustified threats proceedings unless the lawyer has decided to
The lawyer checks
- Each right asserted checked: subsistence, registration status, owner, scope (classes, claims, design) and dates
- Client's use and dates checked against the rights, including any prior use, licence or other defence
- Open and without-prejudice material kept separate, and nothing in the open letter is an admission
- Unjustified threats position considered, including who received the threat and the loss caused
Method: how the Green, Yellow and Red levels are decided. This is guidance for planning, not legal advice.
Read the full text
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The summary, the law it rests on and the AI-use guidance above stay public. Privacy.
More in Intellectual Property — Patents, Trade Marks, Copyright, Designs
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- IP infringement letter of demand (trade mark, copyright, design, patent) with unjustified-threats check
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- Research collaboration contract (Australian IP Toolkit for Collaboration and HERC IP Framework) — use guide
- Clause set: ownership of AI-generated output and training-data rights (with warranties and indemnities)
- Memo: AI contribution, inventorship and authorship before filing
All precedents for Intellectual Property — Patents, Trade Marks, Copyright, Designs · Tasks and AI use in this area