Our Services in this sector are designed to stop / prevent further piracy, infringement, violation of Copyrights, Trademarks, Patents and Intellectual Properties of the clients and we have developed an expertise in this sphere.
In case of software especially, our compliance services are designed to ensure smooth compliance and recovery of license fees for the software makers.
There are three methods that we employ for enforcing compliance. We call them the Very Soft Method, the Soft Method and the Not-so-Soft Method.
1) Very Soft Method – Legal Notice:
On identifying an illegal user, our legal department sends a direct notice to the infringing party explaining the applicable laws and penalties. This more often than not gets the attention of the infringer and he approaches us for a dialogue and an eventual procurement.
2) Soft Method – Civil Suit:
On identifying an illegal user, our legal team initiates Civil Proceedings in a Court of Law against the offending individuals. Civil Proceedings are also initiated if in the previous method, the offending company/individual does not respond to our Legal Notice and continues with the infringement. The entire sequence of legal events follows which includes the Court hearing both sides and then a final judgement which also invariably end in an eventual procurement of software by the offending companies. This method although time consuming, is very effective for companies more inclined towards a softer approach.
3) Not-so-Soft Method – Criminal Action:
In some countries however, especially Asian countries, the most appropriate and effective recovery method to establish and settle non-compliance is Criminal Action, i.e. an on-site raid. In such cases, our team along with the local law enforcing authorities conducts surprise checks of computers and servers at the violator’s premises. The findings then form the basis for subsequent legal action and eventual procurement of software.
As the name suggests, we call it the ‘not-so-soft’ method for a reason.
Why is an on-site raid essential ?
Although carrying out a successful raid entails lots of planning, paperwork and effort, its benefits are remarkable.
The chances of finding actual evidence of violation are 100% and the chances of denying illegal usage is 0%.
In most of these cases, recovery of software license fee is instant, i.e. the software sales process starts immediately and is completed the same day. In some cases, it starts the same day and is completed in a day or two.
At times, when software purchase has not been made by the erring party immediately, he eventually purchases the software when the matter comes up for hearing in a court of law.
This by far is the most effective method as millions of dollars as License fees have been recovered employing this method.
In all these three methods described above, because it is a Third party carrying out the Compliance Process, the image of the software company is not affected and nor is the relationship their sales team enjoys with the customers.