I have been sending and enforcing Cease and Desist letters for a while now and I have observed that people can be really emotional when you let them know they may be doing something wrong. I will share a unique instance and I will provide some helpful tips to survive your own C and D experience.

Once during a rather large Intellectual property enforcement, one respondent replied with a firey e-mail stating we were persecuting him, and he was just an honest businessman who wasn’t doing anything wrong. I began to compose a reply immediately, calmly and logically presenting supporting data for our claim, and before I could finish my response and hit send, I was greeted with another e-mail from the same person. This time the man was borderline depressed and apologetic, and remarkably, only a few minutes had elapsed. I deleted my first e-mail response that I was composing, since the whole tone had changed, and before I could re-write another e-mail I was greeted with yet a third response. This was puzzling since I had yet to respond at all? The tone of this e-mail was a willingness to work with us if we could provide sufficient proof of Trademark, good faith usage, etc. I decided this time my response was getting written, hell or high water. I sent out the response with all necessary proof, and I heard nothing back for the rest of the day.
The next morning the man was back with a vengeance. He was going to figure out how to destroy the company, ruin my life and make us pay for having the audacity to call him on his actions, according to the e-mail. I replied calmly and logically, staying on the issue at hand and ignoring his fantastical word imagery and terroristic threats. I reminded him of the law that he was actually breaking, only from the intellectual property standpoint, and I attached supporting evidence that we would use to defend our claim and rights. I sent the e-mail. He replied with a statement along the lines of : “you’ll be hearing from my attorney.” and it ended.
Later that day we received an e-mail containing an authcode for domain transfer and an apologetic e-mail for causing so much difficulty.  To this day, I am unsure if that issue honestly ever resolved in that man’s mind or if he is still plotting my demise?
Contrary to the last respondent, there is no need to get overly excited if you receive a cease and desist letter. It is honestly a courtesy extended to you in the hopes of preventing expensive legal action, no matter how it may feel. Here are some tips if you are a lucky recipient of a Cease and Desist:

Tips

1. Really read the letter. Many times people in their haste either throw the letter away or pick out one element and get hung up on it. Getting hung up on one point also may lead to you to inadvertently escalating due your frustration over simply being in this situation. Without reading the letter fully, you have no idea what you have done, to whom, or how long you have to respond to these claims.

2. Respond! If you Choose to ignore the issue, that is usually taken as an admission of guilt by the offended party! In fact, what you are doing is “escalating”, whether by accident or design. Throwing the letter away can lead to you getting sued, and doesn’t rectify the situation at all. This is akin to an Ostrich putting its head in the sand.  Having said that, I recommend composing a response after seeking advice as needed, and then walking away for 30 minutes to an hour before sending. Perhaps even wait until the next day or obviously let your legal counsel respond. In most cases, emotions will hang you, not the plaintiff, so re-read and remove the emotion from your response before sending.

3. Remain open. Take a look at what they are saying, and get comfortable with the idea that you may be in the wrong, even by accident. Most Cease and Desist letters simply want you to do just that; stop the behavior they have a problem with.

4. Remedy the situation. If they have a point, and you can fix this situation, you probably should. If they are wrong, then get professional counsel ASAP and counter the accusation by using a professional with evidence of your own.

Remember, do not let your emotions get the best of you.