The perils of communicating with customers about IP litigation - could you be making 'unjustified threats'?

What you need to know

• Business updates to customers about actual or pending litigation relating to intellectual property rights can sometimes include 'unjustified' or 'groundless' threats of infringement proceedings.
• If a customer update is provided, it should be drafted with care to avoid any direct or indirect threat of infringement proceedings, and in particular, should avoid reference, whether direct or indirect, to the position or potential infringement position of customers.
• "Reassuring statements" may suggest that an update can be more readily interpreted as a threat of infringement, since such reassurance would otherwise not be necessary.