Legal Question in Intellectual Property in Georgia

This is a question concerning copyrights. .

..I will try to make it very simple.I have copyrighted balloon designs and I am the sole artist of these designs.The company I designed for was bought out by a company in Italy.The company that bought it is a distributor. The Italy company that was sold gave me a contract awarding me residuals every qtr. and records of the sales.This was four years ago. They have been remiss in paying and a few years ago I contacted the USA company and expressed my concerns. This lead to the USA company telling me I had to sign an indemnification contract with them because the other company(Italy)had a contarct.This was a simple piece of paper never drawn up by an attorney and no money was exchanged binding it. To this day designs are being sold all over the world and I am out money.Can I notify the USA company and do I have a leg to stand on here.


Asked on 5/25/03, 7:20 am

2 Answers from Attorneys
Marshall Snyder Law Office Of Marshall Snyder

Re: This is a question concerning copyrights. .

Your original contract with the U.S. company most likely gave it the right to assign your contract. If that is the case, the U.S. company is out of the picture. The Italian company is another matter. Does your original contract grant you the right to periodic accountings? Does the Italian company sell the baloons in the U.S. If so, who is the U.S. distributor? You may have an action against the U.S. distributor who is acting under agency law as the agent for the Italian company. In what state is the U.S. distributor incorporated or licensed to do business? These are all considerations that should be taken account of.

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Answered on 6/24/03, 12:17 am
Sheldon G. Bardach Law Offices of Sheldon G. Bardach

Re: This is a question concerning copyrights. .

The difficulty here is that you may have simply created works for hire, that is the U.S. Co. you worked for actually owns the designs.In which case, you owned nothing to transfer to the Italian company. Even if you did, the U.S. company would owe you no obligation to see to it that you were compensated, even if the designs belonged to you. If they sold their company for stock in the Italian company, they may be interested, however, in avoiding protracted cosstly litigation, and may offer some assistance in resolving the problem.

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Answered on 5/25/03, 5:19 pm


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