QUESTION
Newspaper stole my article. What do I do?
Asked on Aug 17th, 2014 on Intellectual Property - Oregon
More details to this question:
I own a relatively known small news website. The other day, I broke a news story and some of the big networks linked to my article. However,the following day, a well known national newspaper blatantly plagiarized 99% of my article without giving me any credit for it and now every other website is citing them as the original source. I have lost traffic and money because of this, not to mention my reputation is on the line due to the confusion. I sent a "cease and desist" notice to the news editor and gave them 72 hours to fix it. It's been 4 days and they haven't replied. What to do next? Thanks.
1 ANSWER
Intellectual Property Attorney serving Manchester, NH
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Hayes Soloway P.C.
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If you want to push the envelope, you could register the copyright for your article, then sue the newspaper for copyright infringement and misappropriation. News stories have a fair use defense in many instances, but I don't see any other intellectual property rights that have been violated. You would want to have the copyright registered within 3 months of publication to be able to seek statutory damages and attorney fees. You should discuss the matter with a local copyright/IP attorney who can compare the two articles with you and help you prepare to bring suit if that is the appropriate direction to go.
Without seeing the articles, I can't comment on whether you have any rights that have been violated, but this is where I would start thinking about the possibility.
Good luck,
Todd
Answered on Sep 10th, 2014 at 7:57 AM