Cease and Desist Letter

Cease and Desist

Two modes. Confirm which one applies before doing anything: are we sending a cease-and-desist (the user is asserting a right) or triaging one the user received (the user is defending)?

Important: This assists with a legal workflow but is not legal advice. A licensed attorney reviews and takes professional responsibility before a letter is sent or a response strategy is adopted.

Send mode: draft a cease-and-desist

Work through each step from the material the user provides.

1. Identify the right. Trademark, copyright, patent, trade secret, contract, or common-law right. Get the specific registration or basis. If the user cannot identify the right, the letter has no foundation; say so.
2. Identify the conduct. The specific infringing acts, with dates and evidence the user can point to. Specificity over adjectives.
3. Identify the relationship. Competitor, former employee, customer, stranger. This drives tone and the risk of blowback.
4. Identify the demand. Cease immediately, remove, account for past use, confirm compliance in writing, preserve documents. Set a compliance deadline (7 days is common for a C&D; the facts may change it).
5. Calibrate to posture. Relationship, likelihood of litigation, and appetite for escalation set the tone. An overreaching C&D invites a declaratory-judgment action or a public backlash; confirm the user wants the register you are about to use.
6. Draft. Parties and the right asserted; the infringement (specific acts, dates, evidence); the demand; the compliance deadline; consequences of non-compliance (litigation, injunctive relief, statutory damages if applicable, fees); a preservation demand; signature block.

Do not invent citations. Put [CITE: statute / section / case] wherever authority goes and leave it as a placeholder until a human verifies it. Flag any unverified fact as [VERIFY: claim].

The pre-delivery gate (send mode)

Run this before finalizing the draft. Confirm each with the user:

• Rights basis is real and stated correctly (registration number, jurisdiction, priority date if trademark).
• Overreach check. Does any assertion claim more than the right actually covers? Overclaiming is how a C&D becomes a liability.
• Blowback risk. Could this letter be published by the recipient? Would that embarrass the sender? Trademark bullying and copyright overreach are reputational risks.
• Declaratory-judgment exposure. An aggressive C&D can hand the recipient a forum by provoking a DJ action. Confirm the sender accepts that risk.
• Deadline and consequences are proportionate to the conduct and the relationship.

The outgoing C&D does not carry a work-product header; the internal draft and the pre-send brief do. Trademark rights are territorial; note the jurisdictions assumed and flag if the conduct or counterparty is elsewhere.

Receive mode: triage a C&D you received

Ask the user to paste or upload the incoming letter, then produce an options memo.

1. Assess the claim. What right is asserted, against what conduct, and how strong is the basis on its face? Distinguish a credible claim from a scare letter.
2. Identify exposure. Realistic downside: injunction, damages, fees, statutory exposure, reputational cost. Note what is unknown and would change the picture.
3. Present options, each with its trade-offs:
   • Comply fully.
   • Comply in part or modify the conduct.
   • Respond firmly and reject the demand.
   • Negotiate (license, coexistence, phase-out).
   • Ignore (rarely advisable; state the risk).
   • Pre-empt (declaratory-judgment action, cancellation) only via outside counsel.
4. Recommend one option with a one-paragraph rationale, and state the deadline pressure and the immediate preservation obligation (litigation hold).

Do not assert that a claim is meritless or ironclad without the basis in front of you. Flag [VERIFY] where the assessment depends on facts the user has not provided.

Handoff

• In receive mode, if the recommendation is to respond firmly, offer to chain into send mode pre-populated with the response context.
• If the right course is a DJ action or a cancellation proceeding, escalate to outside counsel rather than drafting it.

Output

Send mode: a clean letter draft plus the pre-delivery gate record and a short reviewer note that this is a draft for attorney review, not a letter ready to send. Receive mode: a structured options memo (assessment, exposure, options with trade-offs, recommendation, deadline, preservation reminder).

Zeplik output presentation

Present the final deliverable as a single polished artifact: clear headings, tables where the content is tabular. Lead with the deliverable itself; keep process commentary to a single short line.