Copyright infringement - does it have to be a solicitor?

[iheartdusty]

My friend has a small design business and she is plagued by people ripping off her designs and selling unauthorised copies. she just cannot afford a solicitor at £250 an hour.

Does anybody else offer a one-stop service to write a cease/desist letter, and if necessary, give advice about how to take it to court? Ideally they would collect the evidence as well.

I was thinking of a comparison with licensed conveyancers, employment rights consultants, etc - they offer services related to legal matters without being full-blown lawyers.
She is a member of a trade design association but they don't advise members, they just have a list of solicitors.

It Seems like such an obvious niche, I can't believe nobody appears to do this!

Some solicitors are willing to give a free half hour consultation or maybe phone the Law Society who may be able to point you in the right direction

what sort of things are we talking about?

In some cases it's very hard to prove plagirism as the other party could probably successfully argue that they simply thought of the same/similar thing. So very much depends on how unique whatever she designs is.

She could just cut & paste & edit a standard notice to desist copyright letter; Sign & send it herself. If she has a real case most people will pull the item/desist.

Own-it is a site containing information on copyright and intellectual property for creatives. I've never had to use them (yet) but you can also contact them for specific advice. It says that you have to pay a nominal fee, without saying how much that is, but it might be worth your friend contacting them.

This link goes straight to the page that gives an overview of the advice service:
www.own-it.org/advice

Hope that helps.