Legal Question in Intellectual Property in Illinois

Re: Stolen sites

Registering the copyright on your textual work is cheap and makes sense; unless the logo is highly artistic, it is unlikely to qualify as proper subject matter for copyright registration. Logos are ordinarily covered by trademark law rather than by copyright, and trademark registration would definitely NOT be cost-effective.

Bottom line problem, however, is that this is basically a contract dispute that you are trying to dress up as an intellectual property case (at least, that's how a court is likely to view it). Thus, the enhanced remedies that a court has discretion to impose for copyright/trademark violations are unlikely to materialize in this case. The amount in issue is also unlikely to warrant the increased cost of prosecuting it in federal court as an IP infringement case.

Suggest that you contact a lawyer in your jurisdiction and consult about bringing the case primarily as a contract action. Best wishes,

LDWG

Re: Stolen sites

I agree entirely with the advice of Mr. Graves, but I want to add a couple of other comments.

It is not clear what you mean by "my web site". Did you design this web site yourself? Were you an employee of the company that you say stole your web site? If you were an employee of the company, this web site is a "work for hire" and legally you're not the author, the company is.

You have a statement that "the rights were never obtained", but rights in such works are automatically obtained under the copyright law. So, your statement is wrong. Someone has rights to the web site even without registration. The registration is important, however, because it is a prerequisite to filing a federal lawsuit for copyright infringement. For the probable small value of this matter, a copyright infringement suit may not be either appropriate or wise.

In this case, your claim really appears to be for the amount of money that you were supposed to be paid by the Company for the web site, if there was actually any specific amount agreed. If the court found you were entitled to an amount and there was no amount agreed, the court would have the power to determine an amount that the Court deems appropriate to compensate you for the web site.

You need to contact a lawyer in the local jurisdiction involved, which here appears to be Illinois, for further advice about this contract dispute, just as Mr. Graves suggested. I am an Illinois lawyer and would be pleased to help you or I can refer you to some other Illinois lawyer if you are located in a distant part of Illinois. If you are really interested in pursuing this, please contact me as lawguru does not give out your contact information (which is a good thing to preserve anonymity of questioners.)