Legal Question in Business Law in New York

Re: Plagiarism or not?

It's not plagiarism, it's theft. But in this case, your remedies are limited. Since you wrote the article while employed it is considered a "work made for hire" and the company owns all rights to the article. Since there's no monetary damages, the only issue is your disappointment with not receiving the proper byline. Because I'm a big believer in communicating, I would recommend that you write a letter to the proper person indicating your dissatisfaction and request a correction be added to the next issue reflecting your name as author or as an additional contributor. Regardless of what they do, you should feel that you handled the matter professionally. If you have further questions, I can be reached at 212-208-2470.

Jason L. Stern

Re: Plagiarism or not?

I don't think there's any law against plagiarism. The Copyright Act prohibits stealing someone else's written work under certain circumstances, but I doubt you had this stuff copyrighted. Moreover, in the field of intellectual property, an employee's work products (such as an invention) which were generated in the course of the employment . . . and for which the employee was paid . . . generally belong to the employer absent written agreement. I'm not absolutely sure if that rule applies in the copyright context.