Legal Question in Intellectual Property in California
Copyright Law
I have developed a framework for an information technology project auditing service and documented it. I've created a proposal from that documentation, aimed at a major media company, that has my company copyright mark on the front cover and on every page. The proposal has charts and tables that were marked with my company copyright mark as well.
I recently did consulting for this media company through a recruiting company and so had a non-compete and could not directly engage with the media company. I agreed to have the recruiting company submit my proposal under their relationship with the media company and promoting myself as the consultant to deliver this auditing service. This happened quickly and there was no written agreement between us. I did mention many times in emails that this proposal was my intellectual property and I wanted to preserve it.
Today the recruiting company submitted my proposal document and replaced every copyright mark of my company with their company. Did this recruiting company just steal my project audit service idea for their own? I want to get this consulting job with the media company. What can I do to retain my rights to the idea going forward?
Thank you.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Copyright Law
Review your employment agreement. If you were retained to perform a "work for hire" all copy rights will normally flow to the company. If you were engaged as an independant contractor, you may have retained the copy rights in any work you performed. There are several contingencies between those two ends, but wheter you retained any rights to your work will depend entirely on you contract with the company, and possibly with the recruiting company.
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