I have received a Cease And Desist letter. What to do?

I'm not going to rehash all the other advice already on here about IANAL YMMV yadayada but I'll offer a few observations:

- using a meme does not scream "professionalism" to me; kinda borders on childish in my view

- the whole "made in Country A vs. Country B.": I generally do not care, but seeing this leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

- "created in 2020s vs. when IE6 was still a thing": to me, older stuff means it's been time tested; the tone makes it sound like cockiness about the superiority of your product that has yet to be proven

- You include a comparison chart on features that both do/do not support, which is good; but the wording on some rows is questionable, namely "Scrolling": "Great vs. Bad" is not at all objective. Additionally, I will decide what I prefer; a better description would be "Row/column-based vs. Smooth" (and for the record, I prefer Handsontable's smooth scroll)

- Pointless other jabs: "Choose Handsontable and you're guaranteed to slow down your web app and upset your users." Is this a money-back guarantee you offer? This alone is likely what got you that letter (and to be frank, I think you're lucky that's all you've gotten so far).

- "Freedom of speech" only applies to government censorship; stuff like libel/slander still applies for private entities - your "Freedom [to publish whatever I want (about those guys)]" is equal to their "Freedom to sue you on whatever you wrote about them".

> What should I do here? Ignore or take action?

Take action--based on the feedback given to you here (ie. you'd be foolish to take action against them).

Every time somebody posts something like this the advice tends to be "talk to a lawyer".

There are all sorts of variables. For instance, if an entity is based in the UK they can sue under libel laws that most people think are unreasonable. I think those guys are in Poland so maybe they aren't so dangerous.

Personally I hate the meme image, I think it's in poor taste and you should get rid of it.

I am not a lawyer but smack talking your competitor is a good way to get sued.

I would start with removing anything that talks bad about Handsontable.

Before:

"Fun fact: Handsontable's poor performance and reliability was the reason for our CEO to start building DataGridXL!"

"Choose Handsontable and you're guaranteed to slow down your web app and upset your users. But hey, your app might just work on IE6."

"Handsontable on the other hand presents a barebone grid which is a little surprising for 2.2MB of code." <= Specifically the word "barebone", which could be considered derogatory.

"Something's definitely off here."

"Yes, but weird"

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After:

"Fun fact: Our CEO built DataGridXL because he wanted more performance and higher reliability than he could find on the market, and now he wants to share it with you."

"We believe our product is superior to our competitors and offers better results to your users"

"Handsontable on the other hand shows a basic grid which is a little surprising for 2.2MB of code."

" " <= just remove this line

Change the table entry to say, "Modern Undo and Redo" and change the grid result to "No"

Finally I would talk to a lawyer either before or after making changes like this to make sure that you're in the clear.

I know this isn't your actual question, but I think you should consider if the tone of your article represents the company you're trying to build. To me it reads as informal (comparison table "yes but weird), jokey (meme at top) & one-sided (can't find one point you lose at). It feels like poking at your competitor, not like an attempt at a neutral comparison. Now they're poking back via lawyers.

Maybe you do need a lawyer in this instance, maybe not, but if you're committed to this style when dealing with competitors you'll likely need a lawyer in the future.

I'm not a lawyer and certainly not a Dutch commercial lawyer. This is just general info.

> I can publish whatever I want, right? Freedom of speech?

Not exactly. For a clear cut example, something like "Competitor X has a rootkit which will upload all your nudes to Facebook" is libel (unless they really do that) and you'd lose that case in almost any jurisdiction.

Even far less blatant statements like "is slow" or "is less secure" can run afoul there. Libel laws vary tremendously by jurisdiction.

There's a separate issue also of advertising standards; many EU nations, including I believe .nl have laws requiring fair and honest presentation of the product and competitors. And they can be pretty strict. There have been countless court cases and tribunal rulings on "the fastest network" or "fewer dropped calls" being dishonest advertising with mobile service providers, for example. Often boils down to: can you prove the claim?

Ask yourself, is this a hill worth dying on?

If yes, hire a lawyer.

If no, it is an opportunity to refine your message by deletion and focus on making your project better by something other than comparison.

Good luck.

>What should I do here? Ignore or take action?

Any advice you receive here should contain a variation one of the following disclaimers:

1. I am not a lawyer. YMMV.

2. I am a lawyer. I am not your lawyer and this is not legal advice.

As such, while asking here might net some useful information, you're better off understanding the law within your jurisdiction (based on the site linked, that's the Netherlands, yes?) as it relates to whatever your competitor is complaining about.

Since you link to what appears to be visuals from your competitor's app, there may be copyright issues and/or issues with using their platform in ways that are incompatible with their licence/TOS. Which could open you up to civil liability.

N.B.: I am not a lawyer.

The best advice I can give you is consult an attorney. One who will say: "I am a lawyer. In fact, I am your lawyer and this is legal advice."

That's probably not what you wanted to hear and I'm just some rando on the intertubes, but that's my take. YMMV.

I think the meme is funny, and fun marketing. As others have mentioned, the answer is to talk to a lawyer. You’re running a business, and that means you have money to lose. I’m not lawyer. Cease and desist is at the very least a trial balloon to see how you’ll react. You should absolutely not ignore it and hope it goes away.

It should be forbidden to ask these questions without posting the text of the C&D for us to read.

Our company years ago, when they were even tinier, supported HandsOnTable as one of their first commercial customers, in a big way.

Behavior like this will definitely color my decision-making process to use their products in the future.

Thanks for sharing.

Doing marketing this way is immoral in my opinion. I would even say that such actions can be expected from the Russians.

When you compare products, do it properly. as far as I know, Handsontable releases a new version every now and then and corrects bugs, including performance.

Great marketing keep it up :) ignore all the nerds on here staying stop being mean.

I would tell him that the comparison page is staying up, but if you want to request SPECIFIC changes on anything defamatory then invite him to enumerate his concerns. The valid concerns you genuinely change-- then post your email exchange for more marketing clout :D

Hi, I am Robbert, creator of JavaScript Excel-like data table library DataGridXL (https://datagridxl.com). I made this component since similar products are quite slow & unreliable.

I just released version 2 of the product and decided to add a few "Comparison Pages" to my website, to show visitors why my product is better (when it comes to performance & reliability).

Now, the most well known JavaScript Excel-like data table libary has sent me a Cease And Desist Letter by email (twice) demanding that I take this Compare page (https://www.datagridxl.com/features/compare-handsontable) offline. I am not much of a legal rights expert, but so far I have ignored it. I can publish whatever I want, right? Freedom of speech?

So far I have just laughed it off and considered it very childish for a 20 person company to try to pressure me into taking this page offline. However, I could use the advice of the Hacker News community.

What should I do here? Ignore or take action?

I know a product that should be using DataGridXL, but isn't. It's frustrating to use.

Get a lawyer.