Cease-and-Desist for Trademark Infringement in Uzbekistan

A Tashkent cosmetics founder spotted her logo on someone else's product — same mark, same packaging, on a Telegram channel and on Uzum, priced at two-thirds of hers. Her first instinct was to fire an angry message straight into the seller's chat. She did. Forty minutes later the Uzum listing was gone, the channel had renamed itself, and the stock she could have shown a court had evaporated. The mark was registered, the certificate in hand — and almost no proof of infringement was left. A cease-and-desist letter is a weapon, but it has a safety catch: sequence matters more than wording. Capture first, warn second. Reverse that, and you hand the infringer the time to bury the evidence.

A cease-and-desist is a fork, not a formality

A cease-and-desist letter is a written demand that the infringer stop using your sign. On paper it's "the first step." In practice it's a fork that sets up the whole sequence that follows: in our experience a well-grounded letter that cites the registration certificate ends roughly 70% of infringements without litigation — the seller pulls the product, deletes the listing, stops the ads. The remaining 30% are either someone who decided to fight, or someone you spooked too early.

The letter does two jobs. The first is commercial: scaring is cheaper and faster than suing. The second is procedural: in commercial disputes the court expects to see that you tried to settle before filing. Where a pre-action procedure was mandatory by law or contract and you skipped it, the Economic Court can leave the claim without consideration — costing you weeks on a second lap. That's why the letter almost always goes out even when you already know you'll end up in court: it's both an attempt to settle and an insurance policy for the case.

Evidence first, letter second

The biggest mistake is the order. The moment an infringer receives a cease-and-desist, they have every reason to destroy the trail: pull the listing, delete the post, hide the batch, re-register the page. So evidence is locked down before the letter goes out, not after.

What to capture and how:

• Notarised inspection. A browser screenshot is easy to challenge in court — "that's edited." A notary's inspection report fixing a page (a website, a marketplace listing, a Telegram channel, an Instagram account) records that on a specific date, at a specific address, a specific sign was displayed. It's the strongest evidence of an online infringement.
• Test purchase. Buy the counterfeit as an ordinary customer; keep the receipt, the packaging, the chat with the seller. Don't open the item — store it as physical evidence.
• Photo and video. Storefront, signage, price tag, packaging markings — tied to place and date.
• Metadata. Post date, listing history, the marketplace SKU — anything that shows how long the infringement has run, because that drives the size of the claim.

Only once the evidence is fixed does warning make sense. If the infringement is large and you're heading for court or a criminal case, leave the capture to a specialist — a notarised inspection can't be recreated after the fact.

What the letter must contain

A strong cease-and-desist isn't an emotional message; it's a legal document that visibly carries the readiness to sue behind it. Seven mandatory blocks:

1. Who you are and on what basis. Full name of the rights holder, certificate number, registration date, NICE classes, the list of protected goods and services. The exclusive right runs for 10 years from the filing date and is confirmed by the entry in the State Register — attach a copy of the certificate.
2. What the infringement is. Specifically: which sign the infringer uses, on what product or in what advertising, exactly where (shop address, listing link, channel name). With reference to the captured evidence.
3. Legal basis. Use of an identical or confusingly similar sign for similar goods without your consent infringes the exclusive right under the Law "On Trademarks, Service Marks and Appellations of Origin of Goods." Don't invent an article number: a precise reference to the law without a number is safer than a confidently named article that doesn't exist.
4. Concrete demands. Stop using the sign; withdraw the product from sale and advertising; seize and destroy the counterfeit, labels and packaging; transfer the domain if relevant. A vague "stop violating my rights" is easier to ignore than a list of five points.
5. The money demand — carefully. The law gives you the right to claim compensation for the damage caused. But damages must be proven, and that's hard: an inflated, plucked-from-the-air figure in the letter works against you — the infringer sees the number isn't grounded and stops taking the letter seriously. At the letter stage it's usually wiser to demand cessation and seizure, and to flag compensation as a matter for negotiation or the claim.
6. A deadline for voluntary compliance. The practical standard is 30 days from receipt. Too short looks like a bluff; too long unties the infringer's hands.
7. Consequences of ignoring it. Plainly: non-compliance means an Economic Court claim with legal costs and the state fee charged to the infringer, and — where grounds exist — a filing to customs, the antimonopoly authority, or law enforcement.

What the letter must not contain: threats you won't carry out, insults, and money figures you can't justify in court. Every such word is a gift to the infringer's lawyer.

How to send it so it counts

A letter dropped into a DM or to a random email barely exists for a court — you have to prove the infringer received it. So it goes to the legal address from the register (the registered address for a company, the registration address for a sole trader) by a method that leaves a trail: registered mail with acknowledgement of receipt and an inventory of contents, or via a notary. Mirroring it in a messenger is fine — as a supplement, not the main channel.

Keep everything: the inventory, the postal receipt, the acknowledgement of receipt, a copy of the letter itself. A month later it becomes an annex to the statement of claim and proof that the pre-action procedure was observed. The 30 days run from the date of delivery, not dispatch.

What to do when the letter is ignored

Silence or refusal isn't a dead end — it's the move to the next stage. There are several channels, and they don't rule each other out:

• Economic Court (formerly the Commercial Court). The main route for the rights holder's civil claims: an injunction on use, seizure and destruction of the counterfeit, recovery of damages, publication of the judgment. The evidence locked down at stage one and proof of the sent letter are the foundation of the claim.
• Customs IP register. If the counterfeit is imported, entering the mark in the customs register lets you stop shipments at the border. It's a separate mechanism — covered in our piece on the customs IP register.
• Antimonopoly authority. Riding on someone else's brand often qualifies as unfair competition — an independent ground for a complaint.
• Law enforcement. With large-scale manufacture and sale of counterfeit, the infringer can face administrative and criminal liability — here a complaint, not a letter, is the instrument.

In parallel it's worth switching on trademark monitoring: one caught infringer often means there are other sellers moving the same batch.

When not to send a letter — or not first

A cease-and-desist isn't a reflex. Three situations where a head-on letter hurts.

It's not an infringer in front of you — it's a parallel importer. If someone is selling your own genuine product, lawfully bought abroad, that's not counterfeit, and a "fake goods" letter makes you look bad. The line between infringement and parallel import is thin and turns on the exhaustion-of-rights regime — we draw it in the piece on parallel imports.

Your own mark is vulnerable. Before you threaten, check your position. If the mark isn't used across some of its classes, a letter can trigger a counter-strike — a non-use revocation application against your registration, or an opposition to the mark itself. An infringer with something to lose often switches to attack — see the piece on how marks get challenged.

You need the element of surprise. If the infringer is a professional squatter or an underground workshop, a warning gives them time to hide assets. In those cases the letter is sometimes replaced by going straight to court with a motion for interim measures, or to law enforcement — so the seizure catches the infringer off guard.

In all three the decision is made before the letter goes out, not after. If you're unsure of your position, assess it first and choose your weapon second. We build the defence strategy and run infringement disputes from the first letter through to enforcement of the judgment.

In brief

• Capture the evidence first (notarised inspection, test purchase), and only then send the letter.
• A well-grounded cease-and-desist ends about 70% of infringements without court.
• The letter carries the certificate, a description of the infringement, a reference to the Law "On Trademarks," concrete demands and a 30-day deadline.
• Don't state a money figure you can't justify.
• Send it to the legal address by a method with proof of delivery and keep every receipt — that's the foundation of the future claim.
• If ignored: the Economic Court, customs, the antimonopoly authority, or law enforcement.
• Don't send a letter if you're facing a parallel importer, if your mark is vulnerable, or if you need surprise.

FAQ

Is a cease-and-desist mandatory before court?

For several categories of commercial dispute a pre-action procedure is mandatory by law or contract, and without the letter the claim will be left without consideration. But even where it isn't formally required, the letter almost always goes out: it's cheaper than court, faster, and serves as evidence of good faith. Confirm whether it's mandatory for your specific category of dispute on the date you file.

How long should I give the infringer to respond?

The standard is 30 days from receipt of the letter. That's enough to pull the product and reply, and not so much that it drags on. The period runs from the delivery date confirmed by the acknowledgement of receipt, not from dispatch.

Can I send the letter by email or messenger?

As a supplementary channel — yes. As the main one — risky: in court you'd have to prove the addressee received it. Registered mail with acknowledgement and an inventory, or notarised service to the legal address from the register, is more reliable; use a messenger to mirror it.

What if I don't know who's behind an anonymous shop?

The seller's identity is established through the platform (a marketplace discloses seller data on request or court order), through a test purchase with a receipt and details, and through the domain registrar. Until you've identified the infringer, lock down the evidence with a notary so it doesn't vanish while you find the addressee.

How much can I recover from the infringer?

The law gives the right to recover the damage caused, but its size has to be proven, and that's the hardest part of the dispute. Beyond money, the court can enjoin use, order seizure and destruction of the counterfeit at the infringer's expense, and order publication of the judgment. Confirm the exact set and size of money claims against the current edition of the Law "On Trademarks" and Economic Court practice.

The infringer is threatening to cancel my mark in response — is that real?

Yes, it's a classic counter-move. If your mark isn't used across some classes or was registered with weaknesses, the infringer can file for non-use revocation or an opposition. So before the letter, soberly assess the strength of your own registration — otherwise your enforcement turns into a defence of the mark itself.

Does a cease-and-desist work against counterfeit on a marketplace?

Often yes, but a complaint to the platform itself works faster: Uzum and other marketplaces take down listings on a well-grounded rights-holder report that cites the certificate. Still send the seller a letter too — a takedown doesn't end offline sales, and the letter fixes your demand for a future claim.

A cease-and-desist isn't a threat for its own sake, nor a box to tick. It's the opening move in a game whose outcome is largely decided before the letter is even sent — by whether you managed to lock down the evidence, and by how soberly you judged your own position. A strong registration plus captured infringement plus a well-drafted letter stop most infringers in a single paragraph. A weak position, fired off in anger, does the opposite — it teaches the infringer how to defend against you.