Design-related legal, copyright, trademark, or intellectual property rights confusion? NoD guest author and legal expert Jean S. Perwin is taking questions. If you have questions for Jean, email them to us using editor (at) notesondesign.net. Jean will reply to questions frequently here under the “Intellectual Property” category of NoD.

Thomas says:

I am a freelance graphic designer. Over the course of 5 years, I conceptualized and designed all the branding, corporate identity, website design and illustration work for COMPANY A – at a reduced hourly rate. It was a small startup company with a website product, and I had a somewhat personal relationship with the owner.

Now, there was money exchanged for design services, with this set hourly rate paid for the work. There was also – however – a COMPANY A promise of a lot of future work once the COMPANY A product was sold.

No agreement was ever signed, and ownership of the copyright was never discussed. There was an inherent promise to compensate us once the product was acquired, but that has not materialized.
COMPANY A was recently acquired by a major Magazine, which will bundle the COMPANY A product into their features on their website.

So basically the product was sold, but i’ve been cut out of any profit or promise of continuing work. The Magazine’s creative director is now requesting original art files from us as well, so they can take over the maintenance and further marketing of the product.

My questions are as follows: Read the rest of this entry »