Someone Is Using My Trademark Without Permission | What Can I Do?

Key Takeaways Discovering someone is using your trademark without permission requires fast, documented, and legally strategic action. Reacting emotionally or too slowly can both damage your case. ●     Document the infringement thoroughly before taking any public action ●     Confirm the other party’s use actually meets the legal definition of trademark infringement before escalating ●     A cease-and-desist letter is usually the first formal step and resolves many disputes without litigation ●     TTAB proceedings and federal court are available when a cease-and-desist is ignored or rejected ●     Delay weakens your legal position significantly; acting quickly matters in trademark law

 

You built your brand carefully. The name, the logo, the identity that your customers recognize and trust. Then you find it being used by someone else on their website, their packaging, their social media, or their storefront.

The anger is immediate. The instinct is to act fast and publicly. But how you respond in the first 48 hours matters more than most business owners realize.

This is a guide for Illinois business owners, Chicago entrepreneurs, and anyone across the United States who has discovered their trademark is being used without their permission. Here is exactly what to do, in the right order.

What Are the First Steps When You Discover Trademark Infringement?

Before you send any letter, make any phone call, or post anything publicly, two things need to happen: you need to confirm the infringement is legally real, and you need to document everything in its current state.

Is This Actually Trademark Infringement?

Not every similar-looking brand or shared name qualifies as trademark infringement under U.S. law. For infringement to exist, three conditions generally need to be true.

First, the other party must be using a name, logo, or mark that is identical or confusingly similar to yours. Second, they must be using it in commerce in connection with goods or services. Third, their use must create a likelihood of confusion among consumers about the source of the goods or services.

A business in a completely unrelated industry using a similar name may not constitute infringement. Two food businesses using near-identical branding almost certainly do. Understanding where your situation falls on this spectrum shapes every decision that follows.

How to Document the Infringement Properly

Before you reach out to the other party or take any action, gather and preserve every piece of evidence of their use. This documentation becomes the foundation of any legal action you take later, and evidence that disappears or changes after you make contact cannot be recovered.

Here is what to capture and save:

Take dated screenshots of their website, social media profiles, product listings, and any advertising. Record the URLs of every page where the infringing use appears. Purchase or photograph their product if it carries your mark on the packaging. Save any communications or marketing materials where the mark is used. Note the geographic area where they are operating and the specific goods or services they are selling under your mark.

Do all of this before making any contact with the infringing party. Once they know you are aware of the situation, they may alter or remove the evidence.

What Is a Cease-and-Desist Letter and When Should You Send One?

A cease-and-desist letter is a formal written notice from a trademark owner, or their attorney, demanding that the infringing party immediately stop using the protected mark. It is the standard first step in trademark enforcement and resolves a significant number of disputes without any litigation.

What Does a Cease-and-Desist Letter Actually Do?

A properly drafted cease-and-desist letter does several things at once. It formally puts the other party on notice that you own the trademark and consider their use to be infringement. It creates a documented record that you acted promptly upon discovering the problem. It allows the infringing party to stop voluntarily, which is often the fastest and least expensive resolution for both sides. And it sets the stage for legal action if they refuse to comply.

A letter that is too vague, too aggressive in its demands, or legally incorrect can actually undermine your position. The tone and content of the letter should be firm, factual, and legally precise, which is why having an attorney draft or review it before sending is strongly advisable.

When Should You Send One vs. When to Hold Off?

Send a cease-and-desist promptly when the infringement is clear, documented, and ongoing. Time spent waiting gives the other party more opportunity to build consumer recognition under your mark, which complicates enforcement later.

Hold off if you are not yet certain whether their use genuinely constitutes infringement under the legal standard, or if you suspect the conflict may have arisen from an innocent mistake that a simple direct conversation could resolve. Sending a formal legal letter to a small business that made an honest branding error without first checking whether they would simply change it voluntarily can create unnecessary conflict.

Our trademark attorney can help you assess which approach fits your specific situation.

What Happens After You Send a Cease-and-Desist?

Three outcomes are common. The infringing party complies, stops using the mark, and the matter is resolved. The infringing party responds with a counter-argument, claiming they have their own rights to the mark or that their use does not constitute infringement. Or the infringing party ignores the letter entirely.

The second and third outcomes both require escalation to formal legal proceedings.

Is someone using your trademark without permission? Sahil Malhotra at Drishti Law provides a free consultation to assess your situation and advise you on the fastest path to protecting your brand. Call (773) 234-1139 or book at drishtilaw.com.

What Are Your Legal Options Beyond a Cease-and-Desist?

When a cease-and-desist letter does not resolve the infringement, two primary legal pathways are available: proceedings before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) or litigation in federal court. Each serves a different purpose and suits different circumstances.

What Is a TTAB Proceeding and When Is It the Right Option?

The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board is an administrative body within the USPTO that handles disputes over trademark registrations. If the infringing party has filed or holds a registered trademark for a similar mark, you can file an opposition (to block a pending application) or a cancellation proceeding (to remove an existing registration) before the TTAB.

TTAB proceedings are generally less expensive than federal court litigation and focus specifically on the question of whether a trademark registration should exist. However, the TTAB cannot award monetary damages or order someone to stop using a mark in the marketplace. It only controls what appears on the trademark register.

For many disputes where the goal is to prevent the other party from gaining or keeping a federal registration, TTAB is the appropriate and more efficient venue.

When Does Trademark Infringement Go to Federal Court?

Federal court litigation is appropriate when you are seeking remedies beyond what the TTAB can provide. Specifically, when you want the court to order the infringing party to stop using the mark immediately through an injunction, when you are seeking monetary damages for the harm their infringement caused, or when you want the court to order destruction of infringing products or materials.

Federal trademark infringement cases are filed under the Lanham Act and can result in awards of actual damages, the infringer’s profits attributable to the infringement, and in cases of willful infringement, attorneys’ fees.

Federal litigation is the more costly and time-intensive path, but for serious and ongoing infringement that is causing real commercial harm, it is often the necessary one.

Platform-Based Takedowns

For infringement occurring on specific online platforms, a parallel and often faster enforcement option exists. Amazon Brand Registry, Etsy, Instagram, YouTube, and most major e-commerce and social media platforms have formal intellectual property complaint processes. A registered federal trademark significantly strengthens these complaints and increases the likelihood of a swift takedown.

Platform enforcement does not replace legal proceedings, but it can stop the immediate commercial harm faster while other steps are being prepared.

Quick Insight! In May 2025, the USPTO announced that more than 50,000 goods and services had been canceled from trademark registrations through expungement and reexamination proceedings under the Trademark Modernization Act of 2020. This demonstrates that the USPTO actively uses its administrative processes to remove improperly registered marks, reinforcing the importance of maintaining accurate and enforceable trademark registrations.

How Quickly Do You Need to Act on Trademark Infringement?

Speed matters in trademark enforcement more than most business owners expect. Delay is not simply a passive choice. In trademark law, it can actively harm your ability to win.

Why Waiting Weakens Your Legal Position

The longer an infringing party uses your mark without challenge, the more they build what courts call “consumer recognition” under that mark. If their customers have come to associate the mark with them over time, a court may weigh that recognition against the disruption of ordering them to stop.

Delay also affects the credibility of your claim. If you knew about the infringement and waited months or years to act, a court or the TTAB may question whether you truly considered it a serious threat to your brand.

What Is the Legal Doctrine of Laches?

Laches is a legal defense that an infringing party can raise when a trademark owner delays unreasonably in enforcing their rights and that delay causes the infringing party to suffer prejudice as a result. If laches is successfully established, it can limit or bar the remedies available to the trademark owner even when the infringement itself is proven.

No fixed time period triggers laches. Courts assess it based on the specific facts of each case. But the practical message is consistent: if you discover infringement and have the ability to act, act promptly.

How Does a Trademark Attorney Help You Handle Infringement?

Trademark infringement situations involve multiple simultaneous decisions, each with legal consequences. The choice of whether to send a cease-and-desist or call first, which legal venue to pursue, how to document the harm, and how to negotiate if the other party responds all require legal judgment shaped by the specific facts of your case.

Our experienced trademark attorneys provide several things that are difficult to replicate independently.

They assess whether the infringement meets the legal standard before you commit to any course of action, which prevents costly mistakes based on misreading the situation. They draft cease-and-desist letters that are legally precise and strategically calibrated, neither so aggressive that they provoke unnecessary litigation nor so vague that they fail to accomplish anything.

For business owners in Chicago and across Illinois, Drishti Law handles trademark enforcement from the initial assessment through to resolution. Every infringement situation is different, but the first step is always the same: getting a clear legal assessment of your position before you act.

Has someone crossed the line with your trademark? Sahil Malhotra at Drishti Law offers a free consultation to assess your infringement situation and tell you exactly what your options are. Call (773) 234-1139 or book online at drishtilaw.com.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1: Do I need a registered trademark to take legal action against someone using my brand?

You do not need a registered trademark to have rights. Common law trademark rights arise automatically from genuine commercial use of a mark in a specific geographic area. However, a federal USPTO registration significantly strengthens your legal position, expands your rights nationwide, enables platform takedown requests, and allows you to pursue statutory damages in federal court that are not available to unregistered mark holders.

Q2: What if the infringing party claims they did not know my trademark existed?

Lack of awareness is not a legal defense against trademark infringement in most circumstances. Once a trademark is federally registered, it is placed on the public record and deemed constructive notice to all future users. If someone adopts a confusingly similar mark after your registration date, their claim of ignorance does not eliminate their liability. It may, however, affect whether the infringement is classified as willful, which impacts the damages calculation.

Q3: Can I send a cease-and-desist letter myself without an attorney?

You can send one yourself, but there are real risks in doing so. A letter that overstates your legal rights, uses incorrect legal language, or makes threats you cannot back up can weaken your position and, in some cases, expose you to a declaratory judgment lawsuit where the other party asks a court to rule the infringement does not exist.

Q4: What happens if the infringing party ignores my cease-and-desist letter completely?

Ignoring a cease-and-desist letter does not make the problem go away for the infringing party. It typically signals that the matter will need to proceed to formal legal action, either a TTAB proceeding, federal court litigation, or both. The letter itself becomes important evidence in those proceedings, demonstrating that the infringing party was formally notified and chose to continue.

Q5: Is trademark infringement a criminal matter or a civil one?

Standard trademark infringement is a civil matter, meaning it is resolved through civil lawsuits rather than criminal prosecution. The trademark owner brings the case and seeks civil remedies including injunctions, monetary damages, and recovery of the infringer’s profits.