Dear Ms Brooke

Re: Freedom of Information Request

I am writing in response to your request for information dated 20 October 2009. I will address each of your requests below, in the order which they appeared in your email:

1. The number of times the Royal Mail and/or those legally representing Royal Mail have threatened legal action against others for breach of copyright and/or licensing in relation to the postcode dataset.

In respect of breaches of copyright in the Postzon® product, there have been three separate occasions in the past 2 years when Royal Mail has warned of potential legal action due to breach of Royal Mail's intellectual property rights. There have been no such instances in relation to the Postcode Address File® database.

In respect of licensing of the Postcode Address File® and Postzon® products there are numerous ways in which a breach could take place. Warning of potential legal action may also take many forms including verbal. As such no central records are kept and it would take more than 18 hours to gather this information. In these circumstances Royal Mail is exempt from disclosure of this information pursuant to s.12 of the Freedom of Information Act.

2. A listing of these instances including date and type of supposed violation (eg copyright, licensing etc.)

All in respect of breach of copyright and database rights in the Postzon® product:

September 2009, Ernest Marples Postcodes Limited

September 2009, Wikia, Inc

September 2009, Situation Publishing

In respect of breaches of licence, again, no central records are kept and it would take more than 18 hours to gather this information.

3. A listing of the parties to whom the legal action was addressed.

No legal action has yet been taken.

4. A listing of all cases in which legal action actually took place(court trial or settlement, etc) with the date, parties involved, result (trial result or if a settlement was agreed the amount of this settlement).

2004, Royal Mail v I-CD Publishing (UK) Ltd, copyright and database right infringement. The Court found in favour of the defendant.

I hope that this suitably answers your request. However, if you are not satisfied with this response, you do have a right of appeal. If you wish to do so please set out in writing your grounds of appeal and send to The Head of Information Compliance, Royal Mail Group, Company Secretary's Office, 100 Victoria Embankment, LONDON, EC4Y 0HQ. An internal panel will then review your request, and you will be advised of the outcome.

If you decide to appeal and are still not satisfied with our response you also have a right to appeal to the Information Commissioner at:

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

Telephone: 01625 545 700

www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk

Cont…

17 November 2009