Legal Question in Intellectual Property in Canada

Question: I am a Canadian author who foolishly signed a contract with Publish America. Can I find a way to republish my book in Canada without being bound to their 7 year contract? They've lied about almost every aspect of their services, not paid any royalties (Barnes & Noble, Amazon and a U.K. company already have "used" copies for sale) funny, if none sold in the first place. Can they legally even touch me in Canada? How would they know if I renamed the book and changed the character names? Just wondering.

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Asked on 3/01/10, 5:26 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Robert Brouillette Brouillette & Partners

Hi,

You will surely understand that it is impossible to answer your question without reviewing the actual agreement you signed.

This being said, the following principles apply:

1. Changing the names of certain characters or even the title of the book is NOT a good idea. The resulting book would clearly be a copyright infringement of the previous one in which you assigned or licensed to rights to the US publisher.

2. You are probably better to terminate the agreement with the US publisher and then republish your book yourself.

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Answered on 3/02/10, 9:10 am


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