The most polite cease-and-desist letter ever..

[JaneB]

Here is an example of where politeness has got a company a lot of attention.

It's a copyright issue and Jack Daniel's, the whiskey company, is asking someone to refrain from using a mockup of their label.

Jack Daniel's Sends the Most Polite Cease-and-Desist Letter Ever

[Divert To Mobile]

That certainly was a very smart way of handling it.

Steve

[kathiemt]

Yes, it was a good way to handle it but I wonder how many copycats it might spawn in the hope of getting similar results? That author will certainly be happy about the extra sales as a result.

[My Wedding Concierge]

That is fantastic. Everyone wins there, and it's a great example of corporate jujitsu that turns something negative into a positive. In this case a very big positive given the extra publicity it's received.

[JacquiPryor]

Easy to see how they become such a long-standing brand if they are handling things this way.

Believe it or not, 'polite' letters like this aren't actually all that uncommon in the IP space. This may take it up an extra notch by even offering to cover costs to reprint sooner than later, but, I know a few large companies that handle these things in a similar way, playing the 'we're flattered card'...

[TheGoldenGoose]

That is really cool.

Not that I have come across many Cease & Desist letters in my time

I think it rocked! Have bookmarked for future reference. Love how they challenged them on the level of being a JD lover rather than someone who has ripped off their imagery.

Well done!

[kathiemt]

I've had one cease-and-desist letter a few years ago. It was really quite rude and I'd had no former contact from the company before the letter from their lawyers arrived. It had to do with a keyword I was using in my Google Adwords. They had it trademarked. I'd selected keywords that Google had suggested to me would be good for my adwords. I naively accepted them all not realising one was actually a trademarked name relating to my industry. I took the name off the keyword list (it was showing up if keyword searches were done on Google) but the company could have contacted me direct asking me to take it down. I would have done it happily.

[bluepenguin]

From this day forth, everything I design will mimic the Jack Daniels brand. Think of all the money they're gonna pay me to redesign everything.

[DavidThomas]

Ha, that was excellent

[Cjay]

And now I have another reason to enjoy their fine product!