Legal Question in Business Law in New York

Re: false advertisement

Yours is a really, really good question and it brings up all kinds of issues.

First, if your husband designed (different from merely building) the gazebo himself, the posting on the other contractor's website may infringe a copyright (copyright exists in architectural design). If your husband uses a drawing or picture of the gazebo as an indicator of himself as a source of services in the marketplace (i.e., as a logo), then there's a potential trademark action here.

Without getting into the intellectual property issues involving copyright or trademark (which are the two potential issues I see based on this behavior), though, there may be a case for something like restraint of trade or business tort or even conversion; more likely is a case for false advertising.

Is the other contractor's behavior illegal? Probably, but you can't have him arrested for it; his "crime" is not covered under the criminal laws (well, not much; the copyright law has criminal penalties attached, but they would not likely come into play here); it's a civil tort or series of torts that you'd have to sue him for to get any recovery.

You're welcome to use my services to help you with this matter if you don't have an intellectual property/business lawyer in your back pocket. My address and email are associated with this response.

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