Trustpilot

CJCH takes Welsh business East and West in October 

Cardiff based CJCH Solicitors provides a global consulting service specialising in software anti-piracy to multinational software companies. Since developing this bespoke solution in 2014, Senior Partners Stephen Clarke and Tim Hartland have grown the consulting division to over 60 staff members, speaking over 22 languages and providing analysis, research and compliance services to its clients across 60 countries worldwide.  

 

In October, the executive leadership team of CJCH ventures to Japan and the United States on two trips aimed at growing international business relations, sharing specialist knowledge, and bringing new business opportunities back to Wales.  

 

Luke Heydenrych, Group Chief of Staff, will travel to Austin, Texas with the Firm’s training manager and performance management strategist, to speak at an international software anti-piracy and licence compliance summit, hosted by SmartFlow Compliance Solutions.

 

Heydenrych is sharing his knowledge on the development of specialist skills that CJCH have developed here in Cardiff, in an address entitled “Next Generation Piracy Investigators: Immersive Techniques in Knowledge Transfer and Thought Leadership”. The focus on his presentation is on understanding a unique combination of skills needed to appropriately tackle the challenge of digital copyright theft and misuse of software products. Heydenrych will be sharing the stage with an elite collaboration of speakers including Technology and Privacy lawyers, Cyber Security Specialists, and law enforcement specialists from the FBI.  

 

At the same time, Stephen Clarke, Group Chairman, and Andy Clarkson, Managing Director of the CJCH Consulting division, are bound for Japan to meet with a leading Japanese intellectual property law firm to discuss a collaborative approach to supporting clients’ needs across Europe and Asia.

 

The focus of this trip is to build a strong bond between the two firms and the two regions to allow for cross-border compliance and enforcement activities to be better managed in the future.

 

Clarke has forged similar relationships with firms in other countries such as China, Israel, Brazil, and the UAE. Clarke envisions building a hub for global IP and Copyright protection here in Wales which brings international business and opportunity to our region.  

 

CJCH is no stranger to international business relations, and their team spend a great deal of time working with law firms, consultants, law enforcement and public services organisations across the globe in an effort to share their knowledge and assist in protecting the innovation and development investment made by software companies to produce the products which make modern life possible.

Licence Compliance: Stopping digital infringement behaviour

Repost from CJCH Consulting.

At CJCH, we have established ourselves as world leaders in an industry which is still gaining public awareness and understanding. As a Firm, we have developed an innovative and systematic approach to not simply identifying an incident of software piracy, but to manage that process through the full lifecycle of enforcement to licence compliance and the recovery of lost revenue for our clients, the copyright owner.

Getting to know the terms

Terms such as “anti-piracy” and “licence compliance” might seem to be counter-intuitive, but in reality, are quite straight forward. Anti-Piracy is the process of instituting countermeasures to piracy. In our industry, piracy does not mean eye-patches and cannon battles at sea. Rather, it refers to the reproduction or unauthorised use of someone else’s work or innovations.

Physical copyright infringement, such as reproduction of clothing, is commonly known as counterfeiting. When it comes to the digital arena, such as computer games and software, we refer to this as piracy.

Licence compliance” is a term used to describe the process which follows on from the identification of infringement activity. The licence is the right the software developers give to the users which allows them to use the product they have developed in a specific way or format. These details are usually outlined in a “ULA” or user licensing agreement. Terms will vary depending on the developer, but any user who uses these products is agreeing to these terms when they install and/or use the software. The terms usually include the number of times the product may be installed on a device or number of devices it may be installed on. They may also relate to the number of users who may use a single licence, the location the licences may be used in, or the primary function the licence may be used for, i.e. personal, academic, or commercial use.

Therefore, licence compliance is the process by which the owner of the copyright takes action to enforce their copyright and require an unauthorised user (someone who is using a fake, copied, or cracked version of their product without paying for it) to pay for the licence and usage that they have benefitted from.

What is a Raid?

In a field shrouded in misperceptions and deception, we often come across infringements that, for various reasons, such as the scope of the violation, require a more direct and tactical intervention – an on-site inspection ordered by a law-enforcement authority (often informally referred to as a Raid).

As mentioned above, copyright infringements constitute a violation of intellectual property rights. Due to the intangible nature of computer programs, there are mechanisms which allow for software infringements’ traces to be easily hidden or deleted by the infringer. This makes it very difficult for the right holder to enforce their rights and consequently could result in the infringer being able to avoid liability. 

An on-site inspection is an approach we use which helps to avoid these risks. An unexpected inspection on the premises on the infringer, ordered by a law-enforcement authority enables the right holder to obtain and/or secure the evidence of the software infringements currently being used and has proven a very effective remedy. 

How can this be implemented?

Around the world, the legislation of various nations usually provides the possibility to obtain an ex parte / Inaudita parte order (meaning it is in the interest of one of the parties to the matter) for the inspection which will be granted by the relevant authority (court, prosecutor, police…) depending on the jurisdiction. Once this order is obtained, and following the regulations of that particular jurisdiction, an inspection is conducted, usually under the supervision of local law enforcement, to inspect the premises of suspected infringements. 

Access to the premises is granted, by order of the authority, and the inspection is carried out. All computer devices and IT equipment are inspected, and evidence of unlicensed software use is gathered/or preserved.

On-site inspections are a legal process which we manage on behalf of our clients and is a service which has allowed many of our clients to expose large volumes of unlawful use of their products which have been stolen from them. 

CJCH have a dedicated on-site inspection team which are strategically placed to observe and monitor our client’s usage data. To date, they have managed the legal process relating to on-site inspections for a number of cases and have recovered in excess of €1 million in revenue for our clients (with up to a further €1 million in pending action).