The Real Cost of IP Piracy: Civil Damages Criminal Charges and Secondary Liability

71 questions on the real cost of IP piracy, answered and cited by the UpLaw editorial team.

• Can copyright infringement claims be brought in state court?
• Can genuine goods become counterfeit?
• Can I be liable for building a tool that other people use to pirate?
• Can I be ordered to pay the other side's attorneys' fees in a copyright case?
• Can I go to prison for patent infringement?
• Can I opt out of a Copyright Claims Board proceeding?
• Can I sue for copyright infringement before my registration is approved?
• Can laches bar a timely copyright damages claim?
• Does a jury or a judge set copyright statutory damages?
• Does a mistake in a copyright registration application invalidate the registration?
• Does how I register my works affect how many statutory damage awards I can recover?
• Does it matter whether I knew I was infringing?
• Does Section 230 protect a platform from copyright claims?
• Do I have to register a copyright before I can get statutory damages?
• How are patent damages calculated?
• How did Van Buren change the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act's use against insiders?
• How do copyright owners identify anonymous online infringers?
• How does patent marking affect damages and willfulness?
• How does the asymmetry between counterfeiting profit and exposure work?
• How does the burden of proof work for actual damages and profits in a copyright case?
• How does U.S. Customs help stop counterfeit imports?
• How do software publishers enforce over-deployment?
• How far back can copyright damages reach under the discovery rule?
• How much did courts award against individual file-sharers in the major peer-to-peer cases?
• How narrow is the innocent-infringer defense in copyright?
• How should I think about my actual risk of IP piracy consequences?
• If my company deployed more software seats than it licensed, do we just owe the missing license fees?
• If someone is pirating my work, what should I do?
• Is watching a pirated stream illegal?
• Is willfulness required to recover an infringer's profits in an ordinary trademark case?
• My former employee copied confidential files. What are my remedies and what does the employee risk?
• What are the criminal penalties for trafficking in counterfeit goods?
• What are the four intellectual property regimes that “piracy” can implicate?
• What are the penalties for criminal copyright infringement?
• What are the reputational consequences of an IP infringement finding?
• What are the two ways to measure copyright damages, and which do plaintiffs choose?
• What civil remedies does a trademark owner get in a counterfeiting case?
• What civil remedies does the Defend Trade Secrets Act provide?
• What companion charges typically accompany a trade secret prosecution?
• What criminal penalties apply to trade secret theft?
• What did the No Electronic Theft (NET) Act change?
• What does willfulness mean in copyright law?
• What happens to a platform that fails to terminate repeat infringers?
• What happens to my account when a DMCA takedown notice is filed against my post?
• What is a DTSA ex parte seizure order?
• What is a Section 337 exclusion order and why does it matter?
• What is contributory copyright infringement?
• What is secondary liability for copyright infringement?
• What is the compilation fight in copyright statutory damages?
• What is the Copyright Claims Board?
• What is the Grokster inducement rule?
• What is the range of copyright statutory damages?
• What is the Sony Betamax rule?
• What is the statute of limitations for a civil copyright claim?
• What is the streaming felony and who does it target?
• What is vicarious copyright liability?
• What level of knowledge does contributory infringement require?
• What makes a mark “counterfeit” under the Lanham Act?
• What must information satisfy to qualify as a trade secret?
• What non-monetary remedies are available in a copyright case?
• What personal consequences follow an IP-related felony conviction?
• What practical habits keep a business clear of IP piracy exposure?
• What separates trademark counterfeiting from ordinary trademark infringement?
• What standard governs enhanced damages for willful patent infringement?
• When does copyright infringement become a federal crime?
• Who actually gets criminally prosecuted for copyright piracy?
• Who is the typical target of a software audit letter?
• Why are IP piracy penalties so much larger than the value of what was copied?
• Why do defendants settle IP cases even when they think they would win?
• Why is an injunction sometimes worse than a damages award?
• Why must a confidentiality agreement contain the DTSA whistleblower notice?