Copyright help needed.

Mis-trial

1Bit of a long one, I'll try keep it brief.
Have been involved with a company (boss was originally sort of a friend) for a long while now.
My OH is very creative and has made a lot of prototypes for them (which they then reproduce and sell) just for fun and because he loves to do it - no money has changed hands.
Anyway earlier this year I became self employed and went to work part time at this company. Boss was a pain and became more and more difficult to work with as the pressure from a huge contract increased. My OH came in to help quite a bit (unpaid) but it all ended up unpleasantly as the boss and my OH fell out over the phone due to my unpaid wages (boss would pay eventually but 6 weeks with no money was stressful).

We then decided to open our own business in a similar (but not using the same technology so we are not competitors) area and now would like to stop the original company using my OH's work (and profiting from it) so that we can have the prototypes accredited to him and use it as part of our portfolio. This would open up a lot of doors for us.
How do we go about doing this. Have googled it and not seen anything that helps. There is nothing in writing between my OH and this company.
Oh and I'm still chasing wages, boss is just ignoring my invoices completely now!

Horace

Normally the original designer retains copyright regardless of who the design was created for, however, I do think you would have a problem because there was no documentation to prove that your OH created the designs for the company.

As for your pay, if you were an employee of the firm why are you submitting invoices in the first place? I would be inclined to write to their Finance Director and ask why you haven't been paid what you are owed, give him 14 days in which to respond and maybe make a claim through the county court using moneyclaim online.

Maybe it is best to speak to a solicitor (most will give a free half hour). With regard to intellectual property then have a look at https://www.ipo.gov.uk

InsideInsurance

If you are not competitors do you need them to stop using them? If he created them and there is nothing to show he accredited copyright to them he arguably can still use them as part of the portfolio even with the other company still using them. Whilst there is always pride involved too it may be something worth considering

If you do want them to stop then you would need to get a solicitor involved who specialises in the area of intellectual property. This area of law is traditionally very expensive to enforce but you may find a firm that will at least give you an initial very high level view on if you have a leg to stand on or not given the durations and lack of evidence.

Mis-trial

Just to clarify things a bit.
Very small company - max 8 people there at any time. All are self employed, boss will not employ people. No health and safety etc, no policys, no proper paperwork at all. Accountant gets carrier bag full once a year!
The problems as we see it is that this company is profiting from my OH's work whilst withholding invoices due to me.
The sculptures were made by my OH, then moulded and reproduced for sale for this company.
Some of them were one-offs and company made 10s of thousands for each of them.
The company changed hands 3 years ago (we were very good friends with the original owner, hence the freebies). Since the changeover the company has gone downhill and despite all the unpaid help we have given, we have ended up being owed money and being ignored.
We are very bitter as how this has worked out as if it weren't for the unpaid hours and sculpts my OH had done, this company would not be trading - 80%+ of the items for sale on their website were made by my OH in his spare time for no charge (most for original owner).
It's a real mess and we have no money to take this to court.
All we really want is for the company to cease producing the items OH sculpted so that we can claim them as our work and have them in the new company's portfolio (we would not produce them as items, just as examples of my OH's talent), oh and ofc my invoices paid.

paddyrg

Get a lawyer.

Copyright is automatic - your OH still owns the copyright on his creations unless he has actively signed his rights away - note not passively, but actively. The company were stupid if they didn't get anything signed assigning rights. He has every right to sue them, and seeing a lawyer would probably help the company see sense pronto and make an offer.

Savvy_Sue

And if you're really ready to see the company go down, talk to HMRC. It's not an employer's decision whether or not someone is self-employed, and the employer is the one who gets stung if they make the wrong call.

Amatheya81

Hi,

I'm a self employed artist and although I'm not a expert on copy right I thought I would add my two pence worth from a artist pov.

When you creat a peice of creative work (art or sculpture etc.) it is automaticaly copy right to the artist, however if he created this work for your ex-friends company and gave him verbal permission to use the work without any contract or conditions you will find it practically impossible to get the work back and stop the company using it.

If you OH had not given the work to your ex-friend knowing that it would be used for his business you would be in a completely different situation. In that case it would be a copy right infringment and you would be within your rights to sue the pants off the ex-friend. But in your situation I think you'll find that if you take it to court the judge will just say that you gave the work to the ex-friend in full knowlege of what he would do with it and as there was a verbal contract that you are now trying to break.

I think the best you can hope for is to ask this chap to credit your OH as the artist but you're probably just going to have to draw a line under it and write it of as a life lesson. It's annoying and it feels very personal becouse art work is very personal but the great thing about art is there's always more and you can move forward from this.

Good luck, whatever you decide to do.

Amatheya81

I forgot to add, there is nothing to say that your OH can't still use these items in his portfolio. They are still his work and as the other company has no contract saying that you will not reproduce these model/sculptures there is also nothing to stop you selling identical peices so the lack of contact works both ways.

If they cose to take you to court for doing this I'm sure it would be fairly easy to prove that the work is yours and that while you have allowed them to use it you have made no promise not to use it yourself. Are you still friends with the origional owner? If so then you have a perfect witness to this fact.