Legal Question in Intellectual Property in Illinois

Re: Copyright in public domain publication.

Allowing someone to publish one's designs does not mean that those designs are now public domain. If that were true, no one would allow their creative works to be displayed. Copyright notice is not required. The only way one's creative works can go into the public domain and freely used by the public without fear of infringement is if the artist declares that said works are in the public domain and makes no effort to police their use and adoption or the copyright on the works expires.

When you mean sell, do you mean he just sells copies of the work to a third party or does he make a complete assignment (sale) of the copyright to the works to a third party? Depending on the license granted to the original computer publisher, the new third party owner of the copyright may demand the computer media publisher stop displaying the works.

Don't confuse owners of copies of the works with ownership of the copyright in the works.

There are many confusing issues with this. PLease call me at 773.882.4912. Ds

Re: Copyright in public domain publication.

If the copyright in the work is governed by the 1909 Copyright Act (which was replaced by the current statute in 1978), then the lack of a copyright notice would be important. Under current law, no copyright notice is required for a work to be protected. Similarly, although standard publishing practices often include the phrase "All Rights Resarved," the phrase is not required to protect the copyright owner's rights.

You state that the artist "knew" that the protected designs were going to be used royalty-free. Perhaps some sort of license was granted by the copyright owner. Even so, it is not clear that the new copyright owner (assuming a transfer occurred) must permit such a license to continue.