Indiegogo takes Intellectual Property (IP) rights very seriously. This article outlines how Indiegogo addresses IP disputes for content on our platform (i.e. the Services).
Important Note: Indiegogo cannot give you legal advice on these issues and this article does not constitute legal advice. We recommend that you consult with an attorney before submitting any correspondence to us such as a demand letter or a take down request, or if you have any questions about IP rights.
Copyright Infringement Notice
If you think someone is infringing your copyrighted content on the Indiegogo platform, under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (DMCA), you can contact us and send us a take down notice for that content. Before you send us a take down notice, be sure that it has all of the elements listed below, or your complaint will not be considered to be complete. We are not required to take action on incomplete DMCA notices.
Your complaint must include all of the following:
- A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed (Complainant)
- Identification of the infringed work claimed to have been infringed, or, if multiple infringed works at a single online website are covered by a single notification, a representative list of such works at that website
- Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity and that is to be removed or access to which is to be disabled, and information reasonably sufficient to permit Indiegogo to locate the material
- Information reasonably sufficient to permit Indiegogo to contact the complainant, such as an address, telephone number, and, if available, an electronic mail address at which the Complainant may be contacted
- A statement that the Complainant has a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the intellectual property owner, its agent, or the law
- A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that the Complainant is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed
How do I report a copyright violation?
Once you have all of the information you need for your copyright infringement complaint, please send the complete complaint to Indiegogo's registered DMCA Agent by mail or email (current DMCA Agent information is below, this information may change as needed).
Designated DMCA Agent:
Alese Torres
Indiegogo, Inc.
965 Mission St. Fl. 7
San Francisco, CA 94103
Phone: 866-641-4646
Email:copyright@indiegogo.com
What happens after Indiegogo receives the notice?
When we receive a complete DMCA take down notice, we will review the complaint and may remove the infringing content or disable users' access to their Campaign or Indiegogo account. We will also forward a copy of the complaint to the Indiegogo User, along with the Complainant's contact information.
I'm the Indiegogo User and I want to dispute the infringement notice!
If you are the Indiegogo User whose material was removed (the Respondent) and you believe that your material has been removed or disabled by mistake or misidentification after reviewing the DMCA notice that we forward to you, you will have 5 business days from your receipt of the infringement notice to dispute the claims in a counter notice. You can do so by submitting a complete counter notice by mail and email to our registered DMCA agent (see above). Please note, we are not required to act on incomplete DMCA counter notices.
In order for the counter notice to be complete, it must include:
- A physical or electronic signature of the Respondent
- Identification of the material that has been removed or to which access has been disabled and the location at which the material appeared before it was removed or access to it was disabled
- A statement made under penalty of perjury that the Respondent has a good faith belief that the material was removed or disabled as a result of mistake or misidentification of the material
- The name, address, and telephone number of the Respondent, and a statement that the Respondent consents to the jurisdiction of the Federal District Court for the judicial district in which the address is located, or if the Respondent's address is outside of the United States, for any judicial district in which the service provider may be found, and that the Respondent will accept service of process from the Complainant or an agent of the Complainant.
What happens next?
After we have received your completed counter notice, we will forward the counter notice to the Complainant. We may then decide, in our sole discretion, to replace the removed material or suspended Indiegogo account between ten (10) to fourteen (14) business days following Indiegogo's receipt of the counter notice, unless we receive written notice from the Complainant that they have filed an action seeking a court order against the Respondent’s activity relating to the unauthorized use of the copyrighted material.
As a reminder, we will take no action upon any failure to provide the information or otherwise follow the process outlined above. All DMCA notices and counter notices must be in English.
Trademarks
Indiegogo has a different process when it comes to certain types of trademark infringement claims. If you believe your registered word mark or registered service mark is being infringed on the Indiegogo platform, please follow the process below. For all other types of trademarks like trade dress and non-traditional marks including for example sounds, smells and colors, this process does not apply and we would need to receive a valid court order before we can take action on these types of trademark infringement claims.
To submit a complete claim of trademark infringement, please include all of the following:
- A statement in good faith from you, the Complainant
- Identifying the mark as it is used on the Indiegogo platform and sufficient information for Indiegogo to identify where it is used on the Indiegogo platform
- Explaining the basis for the claim of infringement including any applicable registration numbers and countries where the mark is registered
- Providing the Complainant's contact information.
How do I report a covered trademark violation?
Once you have all of the information you need for your trademark infringement complaint, please send the complete complaint to Indiegogo's registered DMCA agent by mail or and email (see above for that information).
What happens after Indiegogo receives the notice?
When Indiegogo receives a complete trademark infringement notice, we will review the complaint and will take the following steps:
- Forward this notice to the Campaign Owner/Respondent, with instructions on what will happen next depending on the actions the Respondent takes:
- Within ten 10 days after we forward the notice to the Respondent:
- The Respondent either (a) provides Indiegogo with a counter notice stating in good faith that the complained-of material was removed as the result of mistake or misidentification of the material; or (b) changes/removes the contested mark(s) and sends a counter notice to Indiegogo identifying all of the changes/removal made
- Indiegogo will forward such counter notice to the complaining party and take no action regarding the Respondent’s Indiegogo account
- Within ten 10 days after we forward the notice to the Respondent:
- If no such counter notice is received by us within that 10-day period, then we will suspend the Campaign or Indiegogo account.
What happens next?
Except as provided above, we will take no further action, including but not limited to pausing Campaigns or restarting Campaigns, or withholding the disbursement of funds in connection any Campaign, unless instructed to do so by a valid court order.
As a reminder, we will take no action upon any failure to provide the required information or otherwise follow the process outlined above. All covered trademark infringement notices and counter-notices must be in English.
Patents
While we want to reiterate that we respect Intellectual Property rights, we do not process or take action on patent infringement complaints. This is because Indiegogo is not able to determine whether or not a Campaign Owner's product infringes another's patents. We will, however, immediately comply with any valid court order determining that there is infringement.
If you have such an order, please send it to us by email or mail (see DMCA contact information above) along with enough information to enable us to identify the Indiegogo Campaign with infringing content.