Notification in red letter - cease and desist The concept of the termination of activities

In different areas in the United States (U.S.) like the state of Florida, a cease and desist (CAD) order can be obtained by one party from a court of law to tell another person or company to stop violating its rights. They’re often resorted to when a person or entity has to be immediately stopped from doing things that are causing damage to the maligned individual or entity. It’s typically issued by a court of law after the wishes of the filing party. 

Businesses should have a plan of action on how to deal with situations that might already be evolving into potential scenarios which require a cease-and-desist order. In these cases, it might be good for the company to have a few people who could monitor incidents that might escalate into cease-and-desist situations. You might want to check out this article if you want to know more information on how to file a cease and desist order in Florida

Here are some tips on how you can use a cease-and-desist order to protect your rights:

1. Know About The Different Instances When You Can Use Cease And Desist Order

There are many situations when maligned or wronged people or organizations can obtain a cease-and-desist order to protect their rights. There are various personal and business contexts in which obtaining a CAD order letter could sometimes be appropriate. In Florida, here are some of the instances or situations when it could be used:

  • Breach of contract: When the person who entered into a contract with you is about or has already breached the terms and conditions of your contract, it’d be appropriate to obtain a CAD order to stop that person.
  • In defamation cases: Defamation happens when a person spreads stories, rumors, verbal or written statements, that are not true. Often, they’ve calculated to damage the reputation of the person being talked about. 
  • Violations of intellectual property rights: When a business entity or individual person has committed a violation or infringement of your intellectual property rights, it’d be proper to obtain a CAD order to stop the other party from infringing on your patent or trademark rights. For instance, when you see someone sell counterfeit imitations of your products and pass it on as coming from you, that’d be a clear example of intellectual property rights violation. 
  • Debt collection cases: A concrete example of this is when you owe a debt of money to an individual person or a lending company, and they’ve been harassing your family and friends with phone calls or messages after it became past due.
  • Other similar legal proceedings.

2. A CAD Order Can Also Be Utilized As Protection From Defamation On Social Media

A practical example of a situation in which a CAD order is highly useful is when a person or entity is being maligned or has already been maligned on social media or other online platforms. There are now practically thousands of ways to publish statements on the internet through blogs, microblogs, social media posts, photo-sharing platforms, social media comments, and the like. Some even go the whole length of making videos and uploading them.

Word can travel so fast when statements or videos are published, posted, uploaded, forwarded, or shared on the internet. The potential virality of a statement or article is amplified by the existence of interconnected social media accounts, networks, and group chats. With just one paragraph, the reputation of a person or business could be seriously damaged on the internet.

The CAD order can protect the individual or business from being defamed on social media or any other online forums and platforms. The person or business entity whose reputation was assaulted and maligned should be quick in obtaining a CAD order that’d adequately defend the reputation of the maligned person or entity and clear up any untruthful statements made by the perpetrator.

Large enterprises and international businesses should have a well-thought-out plan of action on how to handle online libel and defamation which may have been committed against them. The company should have a proactive stance and be ready to take immediate steps when its name has been dragged to controversial statements or plainly untruthful aspersions on its reputation. With the scale of their operations and the extent of their presence, these companies should come up with a plan on how to anticipate potential scenarios requiring a CAD order.

3. It Can Safeguard You From Breach Of Contract Too

One of the most appropriate uses of a CAD order is when a person’s interests are already in danger of being damaged by breach of contract if that person doesn’t take immediate action.

Proactive monitoring and swift action are often important in breach of contract cases. There are instances in which the damage could no longer be undone once the other party has already breached the terms and conditions of the contract.

A practical case of this is when an employee of a company signed an employment contract, crafted with the help of a legal expert, that contains a non-compete clause. This is a clause that’s often added to employment contracts that prohibits the worker or employee from working for a company that’s considered a competitor of the company where he or she came from most recently. This is particularly true in tech companies, in which employees learn the proprietary tools and trade secrets of their company.

In these situations, the employer left behind has to be quick with obtaining a CAD order, before their former employee wittingly or unwittingly discloses a lot of their trade secrets and proprietary information to the competitor employer. This is highly important, especially for those in the technology sector. 

There are some trade secrets and intellectual property rights that lose their competitive edge once they’ve already been shared with competitors. Even if an award for damages in a proper lawsuit is later on won against the competitor, knowledge of their technology is often enough to give the competitor ideas on how to be at par or even surpass the technological level of the party which originally owned the intellectual property rights. Often, this can no longer be reversed.  

Conclusion

There are many different situations and settings both in a personal and business context when obtaining a CAD order could be the most appropriate and effective legal remedy. These are typically situations wherein the rights of the offended party are about to be violated or have already been violated by the offender. 

If swift action isn’t taken, it’d most likely result in irreversible and irreparable damage to the rights and interests of the offended party. Examples of this are a breach of contract, online defamation, trademark infringement, and debt collection.