• Journal asking for publication charge which was not accepted

Hello sir,
i am a dentist and specialist by occupation and my issue is.
i have sent an article for review in a journal in 2013, the review went on for one month, at the end of i month they asked me to make some corrections in article and gave one week time. as i was busy i waited to make corrections the next day and before i sent the corrections i got a mail saying my article is accepted. then the sent a mail asking me to pay 900 dollars which i was not able to afford, so i did not respond. generally the article will be processed only one you pay the processing charges which in this case i did not pay or gave any approval that i want to proceed. 
suddenly they sent a mail with proof of article in a week and they published without my concent or payment. now they are mailing me for the past two years asking me to pay 1515 dollars, which i never agreed or paid. the are publishing and then blackmailing people like this, i found similar instances with others in the blog.
the publishing company is from hyderabad, i want to know if i have any legal problems involve, i feel this is like a case of fraud. alread us has sent notice to this company 1 year ago.
Asked 8 years ago in Intellectual Property

First answer received in 10 minutes.

Lawyers are available now to answer your questions.

11 Answers

1) you have never agreed to pay the processing charges

2) the article was published before you made corrections sought by them and before expiry of time limit for making corrections

3) if the publisher does not file any case within period of 3 years his claim would be barred by limitation

4) if any suit is filed contest it on merits . File detailed reply denying your liability to make payment as you had never agreed to pay the charges for publication in the journal

Ajay Sethi
Advocate, Mumbai
94520 Answers
7485 Consultations

5.0 on 5.0

1. Since you have not entered into any contract to publish your article against making payment to them, they can not charge you for not making the said payment,

2. As per Indian law, you need not worry on this account.

Krishna Kishore Ganguly
Advocate, Kolkata
27191 Answers
726 Consultations

5.0 on 5.0

1. As already stated in my earlier post, they have no ground to take up the matter legally,

2. Refrain from writing to them without being advised by a lawyer since such letters may give them some chance to create problems later on.

Krishna Kishore Ganguly
Advocate, Kolkata
27191 Answers
726 Consultations

5.0 on 5.0

1) the publisher can file suit to recover he processing charges of 900 dollars

2) the publisher will have to prove that you agreed to pay the said charges in lieu of publication of your article in the journal

Ajay Sethi
Advocate, Mumbai
94520 Answers
7485 Consultations

5.0 on 5.0

neither any criminal nor any civil wrong involve in this situation, they may file a civil suit for recovery against you which will not be succeed because the letter for correction which they send to you are in your favour and without correction and again requested by you they have no right to published the same.

Feel Free to Call

Nadeem Qureshi
Advocate, New Delhi
6307 Answers
302 Consultations

4.9 on 5.0

The contract never came into existence as you did not pay the amount sought by the journal. The remittance of the amount would have been an implied acceptance of the offer. As a corollary thereto, there is no liability on your shoulders to pay the amount demanded. The utmost the company can do is to file a lawsuit for getting the money it has demanded, but you can contest it in defence. Dare the company to proceed against you.

Ashish Davessar
Advocate, Jaipur
30763 Answers
972 Consultations

5.0 on 5.0

According to his email payment is the precondition for publishing of your article.

Article is published without payment and your consent.

Company has no right to ask fee for the article.

There is no valid contract between you and contractual relation between parties is must for establishing right to recover money according to contract.

You may file an objection against publishing this article without your consent in local court. Or send a notice to publisher for the same.

Shivendra Pratap Singh
Advocate, Lucknow
5127 Answers
78 Consultations

4.9 on 5.0

The company is Indian company they can only follow Indian laws.In your case no need to pay any amount to them even getting threat from them. Here there is no contract rising between you and publisher. So company has no right to ask money from you.

Ajay N S
Advocate, Ernakulam
4072 Answers
110 Consultations

5.0 on 5.0

From your contents it can be understood that you desired to publish your material in a journal however owing to certain unavoidable circumstances you could not commit to it. Also the company had asked you to make some corrections in the article. Hope you have evidences for al these, if so, please secure them for the present.

The so called charges of $900 was never agreed upon by you with the journal publishing company and also you never gave your consent to the company to go ahead with the publication therefore this is an act done by the company by themselves without any legal authority to do so. Just dont be worried about the claims by the company in this regard, keep silent without responding to their demands, if they approach court, you can defend on the basis of strong merits available in your side. If they fail to initiate any action for recovery through court of law within three years from the date of cause of action, they are likely to lose the case which will remain barred by limitation by then.

T Kalaiselvan
Advocate, Vellore
84711 Answers
2172 Consultations

5.0 on 5.0

First of all thank you for your reply, i want to know what sort of case he can file,i mailed him about these in detail and he is not in a position to understand. you can check some details of charges put on them in wikipedia by typing OMICS group. i am currently in saudi arabia and planning to move to us, will his ju restriction cover there. Already there are some allegations on them,

He has no jurisdiction to try you at abroad. You should stop communicating to him neither accept any of his claims in this regard. Your committal will bind you with the limitation factor hence dont give him even a reply to his mails. Let him knock the doors of the court, his claim can be challenged and repudiated.

T Kalaiselvan
Advocate, Vellore
84711 Answers
2172 Consultations

5.0 on 5.0

Hi, you are not liable to pay any amount, first you have not given consent for publishing the article so they are blackmailing you and they are demanding the money only by mail so don't bother too much.

2. If they want to recovery the money they have to file a suit, if they filed a suit then you can contest the case on merits.

Pradeep Bharathipura
Advocate, Bangalore
5604 Answers
335 Consultations

4.5 on 5.0

Ask a Lawyer

Get legal answers from lawyers in 1 hour. It's quick, easy, and anonymous!
  Ask a lawyer