Legal Question in Intellectual Property in New York

Re: Use of logo without paying for it

Well, looks like you discovered the hard way why one should not enter into verbal agreements. To answer your question one would need to understand what your agreement with the manager was and whether it can be proven but in general the answer would depend on whether you had been commissioned to create a "work for hire" (rights in which belong to the restaurant) or not (in which case you would still have the rights to the logo and other material). Normally, to prove that your work was "work for hire," the restaurant would have to produce something written signed by you to that effect, and if as you say, there's no writtent agreement, you may still have all rights in your work short of some sort of a license you might have granted to the restaurant (hopefully a paid one) for the use of your work.

The law distinguishes between ownership rights to physical objects and copyright in graphic and other works embodied in such objects. So, just by having your work product, the restaurant does not really acquire copyright in the logo, although it might argue that you granted it some limited right to use it.

In any event, as the author of the works you may be entitled to compensation regardless of who owns the rights in them. If the amount of compensation or value of rights in the logo and other materials is substantial, you ought to consider hiring an attorney to represent you and be mindful of the statute of limitations on your claims and the practical problems of collecting evidence of your contractual arrangement with the restaurant. Sometimes disputes like these can be resolved through negotiations; other times they require resorting to litigation, which is typically quite expensive.

This reply is in the nature of general information, is not legal advice and is not to be relied on as such.