A cease and desist letter that sets out your position clearly

This service is commonly used by businesses, founders and creators who believe someone is using their brand, content, designs, software material, marketing assets or other intellectual property without permission. It can also help where ownership is being challenged or where a former contractor, competitor or online seller is continuing to use material after a relationship has ended. The value is usually in getting a lawyer-reviewed letter that matches the actual issue, rather than sending a generic demand that overstates the position or misses an important fact.

A cease and desist letter can be used across a range of disputes, including brand misuse, copied website content, unauthorised use of images or design work, disputed ownership of creative assets, misuse of licensed material, and conduct that creates confusion around your business. The exact wording depends on what rights you have and what evidence is available. In some matters, the key issue is proving ownership. In others, it is showing that the other party's use is likely to mislead, breach agreed terms, or continue causing commercial harm if left unanswered.

You can, but templates often create problems in IP matters because they assume the same facts apply to every dispute. A weak letter may be ignored, while an overly aggressive one can invite a stronger response than expected. IP enforcement usually turns on details such as who owns the rights, what permission may have existed, how the material is being used, and what evidence you can point to. A lawyer-drafted letter can frame those points more carefully and avoid making claims that are broader than the facts support.

That does happen, especially where the recipient thinks your rights are unclear or believes they have permission to use the material. If there is no compliance, the next step may involve further correspondence, negotiation, platform reporting options, or considering formal proceedings depending on the issue and the evidence. This service helps you take the first formal step and understand where the pressure points are. Ongoing representation is outside the fixed-fee, but we can discuss further work if the matter needs to be escalated.

The fixed-fee covers legal work around the letter itself and the immediate enforcement question. That usually includes a lawyer consultation, review of the background documents or evidence you provide, assessment of the claimed IP position at a practical level, and preparation of the cease and desist letter. We can also explain the likely next step if the recipient denies the claim or ignores the letter. It does not automatically include court proceedings, extended negotiations, or ongoing representation after the letter is sent, unless that is separately arranged.

Just submit an enquiry via this page or click the 'get started' button on our website to submit an enquiry. After you've submitted an enquiry, one of our legal consultants will review your enquiry within 1 business day and get in touch to get a better idea of exactly what you are looking for.

Then your legal consultant will send through an email with a bit more information about the services you need, along with a fixed fee quote setting out costs, scope of the service and timing. Have a read through it, and if you're happy with the scope, you can accept and sign our engagement letter online - easy!

Once you've formally accepted, we'll connect you with a specialist lawyer and they will work with you to complete your project. They will contact you by email or phone if they need to get in touch.

Sprintlaw works on fixed-fee pricing wherever possible, so you can review the scope and cost before you decide whether to proceed. For the Cease And Desist Letter service, pricing starts from $900.00.

After you enquire, a legal consultant will confirm what is included, the expected timing and whether any extra work is needed before you engage us.

We operate completely online, which means we can help you wherever you are in New Zealand. We have office spaces in Sydney, and in Melbourne, but our use of technology allows our team members to work remotely from around the world. Our legal team are mostly based in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. We also have a London office for Sprintlaw UK.

Our legal team is made up of experienced lawyers, who are specialists in various areas of law and hold an Australian legal practising certificate. None of our Sprintlaw lawyers are New Zealand qualified lawyers and they do not currently hold a New Zealand practising certificate.

They provide legal services working remotely from Australia via our 'legal consultancy' model, through which (under section 6 and section 35 of the New Zealand Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006) our Australian legal team are permitted to provide legal services to New Zealand businesses provided they do not provide services in certain 'reserved' areas of law. You can read our FAQ page to learn a bit more about our 'legal consultancy' model.

Given the strong similarities between Australian and New Zealand law, and the areas of law in which we practice (being small business and startup law), we do not view the fact that our lawyers have not qualified in New Zealand as having any substantive impact on the quality of our service. We are committed to ensuring that we provide high quality, affordable legal services to all our New Zealand clients.

Our legal team have all trained at leading firms, but have left the traditional corporate law world to join us on our mission to create a new and better way of delivering legal services. They have specialist expertise in technology law, intellectual property law, contract drafting and review, corporate law and commercial law.