Legal Question in Intellectual Property in New Jersey

I bought a used vehicle from a major automobile dealership and it turned out to be a lemon. An older salesman was very nice to me during the purchase and I wrote him a letter of recommendation for him prior to finding out about the major problems with the car that required a new engine being installed. The dealership failed to rectify the situation and then took my letter of recommendation and placed it on their website testimonial section and they have been and are still using it to solicit business for some 7 months now, despite my three requests that they remove it from their website! I don't know anything about publishing or copyright law, but I read that the dealership owns the letter once I send it to them, however, they cannot publish it without my consent....rights to publication still belong to me and require my consent. Is that correct? Do you know of any case law to support this because I am filing a civil claim for selling me a lemon and I would also like to claim damages for their use of my letter against my repeated objections?


Asked on 1/15/10, 8:09 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
John Corbett Corbett Law Firm LLC

Your right to control publication, if it exists, arises under the Copyright Act. That statute gives the author of a copyrighted work certain exclusive rights including control of publication. The copyright law (17 USC 101 et seq) does not require registration for a copyright to exist. However, registration is required if a suit is to be brought. So, if you claim a copyright in your letter, you may sue the dealer for knowing infringement but you must first register the copyright in the letter. That said, the most you can expect to get is an order to cease publishing the letter. An advantage to registration of a work prior to publication or shortly thereafter is that an infringer can be required to pay statutory damages plus attorney fees. You have probably waited too long to do that and it is doubtful that you can prove any actual damages. So, the most that you can expect is to get an injunction requiring the dealer to remove the letter from its ads. I hope that helps.

See also: http://info.corbettlaw.net/lawguru.htm

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Answered on 1/20/10, 8:49 am


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