Cease and desist declaration
If a photograph has been used without the permission of its legal owner, the copyright holder has a right to injunctive relief against the infringer. The same applies if the owner of a digital material was not mentioned in connection with the publication made. In this case, the photographer is entitled to injunctive relief due to missing copyright identification. The claim for injunctive relief can only be fulfilled by submitting a cease-and-desist declaration, which is subject to penalty. Since Robert Fechner sets very short deadlines for the submission of a cease-and-desist declaration with a penalty clause, you have to act quickly and strategically. If you sign the standard cease and desist declaration made available to you without prior verification, you are bound to its content for life.
We advise our clients not to sign the standard cease and desist declaration sent by Robert Fechner without prior verification by a lawyer! A cease-and-desist declaration is in fact a contract and the claim is not always justified. If you sign the standard cease-and-desist declaration without prior verification, you are bound to the content of the contract for the rest of your life.
Claim for damages
In addition to the injunctive relief, Robert Fechner asserts a claim for damages. This means that you should compensate the damage caused for the use of the material. The amount of compensation can only be decided on a case-by-case basis and is usually calculated according to the so-called "license analogy". Robert Fechner uses the fee recommendations of the Mittelstandsgemeinschaft Foto-Marketing (MFM recommendations) to determine the amount of damages. In addition, Robert Fechner demands a surcharge of 100% if the author is not named.
A further 50% surcharge is added if the digital material was used for an online shop. A so-called photograph with "global reach" will be charged a further 120% surcharge.
Attorney's fees
In addition, the copryright holder will make claim for the attorney's fee - in this case the commission fee charged by the attorney Robert Fechner. The lawyer's fee consists of the object's value and the business fee. The disputed amounts can range from 6,000.00 EUR to 42,000.00 EUR. The attorney costs could reach up to 1,965.88 EUR, if the value of the disputed object amount 42.000 EUR.
Documentation costs
Finally, Robert Fechner claims so-called documentation costs. According to Robert Fechner, documentation costs are costs produced by gathering the documentation needed in a court of law to demonstrate the copyright infringement. According to our knowledge, the documentation costs are regularly amounted to 95.00 EUR net.
