Legal Question in Intellectual Property in California

I suggest you take a look at the Wikipedia article on "work for hire." This article (and others on the 'net covering the same topic, point out that where a copyrightable work is produced for an employer by an employee, or by contractor who agrees that he'll be producing a "work for hire," the rights belong to the employer and not to the employee or contractor. So, whether you can make such a demand successfully will probably depend upon the wording of your contract.

The default rule is that unless you were a bona fide employee, in which case everything created within the scope of your employment would belong to your employer, or working with a written work-for-hire/assignment agreement then the IP rights to what you created belong to you.

This does not mean you have a right to ask for anything back. The employer still receives an implied license to use this creative content for its intended purpose and you would not be permitted to frustrate that use or interfere with it, such as using the same to compete with them or licensing it to a competitor. Doing so may give them a cause of action against you. That said, they do not get to exercise complete control over the work either. Meaning, that they could not seek to exploit it beyond its intended purpose such as license it out to others.

If you have a dispute about payment terms, it is most likely going to be handled as a contract dispute not an intellectual property matter. Every case is different however so you cannot consider my comments conclusive. In some cases, you may very well have an IP rights dispute here so I suggest discussing it over with counsel in private if this is of serious concern.

If you would like to discuss further over a free phone consult, feel free to contact me anytime that is convenient.

Our firm is now referred by the American Bar Association (see under the New York section):

http://www.americanbar.org/groups/delivery_legal_services/resources/programs_to_help_those_with_moderate_income.html

Kind regards,

Frank

www.LanternLegal.com

866-871-8655

[email protected]

DISCLAIMER: this is not intended to be specific legal advice and should not be relied upon as such. No attorney-client relationship is formed on the basis of this posting.