Copyright Aid

Hello,

I am currently in dispute with a company who has infringed my copyrighted photographs; the company in question have accepted that their use of my images was wrong but are disputing the amount that I am claiming in damages. As I am not legally trained, and I have never issued a claim at the IPEC "small claims track" before, I am trying my best to research the correct procedures that are required should my negotiations with the company fail to reach a mutually agreeable settlement. Both Andy J and fatty from this forum have provided me with some useful advice to my previous questions and this has encouraged me that it may just be possible for me to successfully pursue cases of this nature on my own, especially when the value of a claim is too low to justify engaging my solicitor.

I recently received a response to my demand for damages. Below are a few questions I have and wondered if anyone could offer advice.

1. In Para 6a of the PRACTICE DIRECTION – PRE-ACTION CONDUCT AND PROTOCOLS, it details that in any claim letter, if money is mentioned, details of how the amount is calculated is required. Does this mean I need to give a detailed break down of how I have arrived at that figure and If, I have included a multiplier (of what I expect the court may award for flagrancy) do I need to detail this?

2. In the companies correspondence they have attached case notes of a recent "small claims track" case (a previous claim against them) which they feel have similarities to mine. Although on this occasion the courts decision was in favour of the claimant, and damages were awarded, the amount was substantially lower than was claimed. The company are obviously trying to use this to persuade me to accept their lower offer. My instinct is to reply, setting out my arguments on why I feel this case in not applicable to mine and also reference the following case which Fatty detailed in a previous post "This case shows that what is relevant is your own prices rather than the prices others charge"

http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWPCC/2013/26.html


My question is, am I right to detail all my arguments to the defendant at this stage? I obviously want to follow the correct CPR but given my limited legal knowledge could I be giving them an unnecessary advantage by showing my "full hand" at this point or is this how these matters are normally negotiated? I have marked my previous correspondence "Without Prejudice Save as to Costs".

Thanks in advance, James

Hi James,

Let me start by saying that providing advice on the conduct of litigation is a so-called 'reserved legal activity' (see section 12 of the Legal Services Act 2007) and so not something we can do on this forum. And indeed you would be foolish to act on advice solely provided on a forum such as this where you would have no redress should the advice turn out to be faulty and not tailored to your particular circumstances. We can provide general advice on what the law says and to a degree, how the court procedure works and the outcome of previous cases by way of illustration of what you might expect.

There is an Intellectual Property Pro Bono unit which is run by CIPA who can assist litigants in person to conduct their case. I suggest you approach them for advice.

Incidentally, the link you provided in you last posting does not work. Here is the correct link Sheldon v Daybrook