Legal Question in Intellectual Property in Ohio

Web Designer Claiming Copyright Infringement

I am a web site owner. I contracted with a Web Designer, and provided detailed information about what I wanted for my site. The Designer developed a quotation that listed what I wanted in sufficient detail that I felt we had a decent agreement. I signed the scope document, and paid her $3,200.00 over the agreed installments. When she saw that my idea for marketing 'mini-sites' to my authors was a hit, she came back after being paid in full claiming the 'mini-sites' were not included, and that she would only license them to me. I refused on the grounds this was specified up front, and she was to build a template that I could manually reproduce each time I sign a new author. She is 23, her atty from a big firm is 53 and suing me 'pro bono'. They are threatening to sue my web host if they do not remove these files under USC 17 106 and 501 claims. I am struggling to launch my biz. I don't have an atty but feel I am the rightful owner under USC 101 as I hired her and there is a contract. They claim one second there is no contract because the scope doc does not say 'work for hire' in it, yet it is clearly a contract and signed by both parties. How can I stop them from shutting my site down? I gave her all the info to do this work!


Asked on 12/13/07, 11:24 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Nancy Delain Delain Law Office, PLLC

Re: Web Designer Claiming Copyright Infringement

Yours is not the only case where something like this has happened.

It's a pity you didn't have an attorney review the contract for you before you signed it; there are words we look for in such documents that assure us that the web developer does not have a claim on the owner's intellectual property. Unless those words are there, the owner may have a problem and the web developer may have a claim.

Whether you think you can afford one or not, you NEED a copyright lawyer to look this contract over and render an opinion as to who owns the intellectual property in the site. Copyright law is federal, so you can hire any attorney anywhere who practices copyright law -- general practice lawyers are NOT the people to go to with this -- to do this for you. I'd be happy to look at the contract for you, but to keep things simple, you probably want to hire an attorney who is closer to you than am I (my office is near Albany, NY).

If you need help finding an appropriate attorney, the US Patent and Trademark Office maintains a very current roster of patent attorneys on its website (www.uspto.gov). Many patent attorneys either work with copyright attorneys or practice copyright law themselves. The roster is searchable by many parameters, including geographic region. I'd search it for someone who is reasonably close to you AND who has a registration number above 60,000 AND who is in a solo or small firm practice (say 5 or fewer lawyers; you can expand to 10 or fewer lawyers if that brings up a null listing). These are people who have recently passed the patent bar and are developing practices; they're hungry, they're good at what they do, and they may be less pricey than are the people with registration numbers in the 30000s and 40000s.

Or you can call my office and we'll get your matter scheduled for phone consult.

Good luck.

THE INFORMATION PRESENTED HERE IS GENERAL IN NATURE AND IS NOT INTENDED, NOR SHOULD IT BE CONSTRUED, AS LEGAL ADVICE. THIS POSTING DOES NOT CREATE ANY ATTORNEY-CLIENT RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN US. FOR SPECIFIC ADVICE ABOUT YOUR PARTICULAR SITUATION, CONSULT YOUR ATTORNEY.

Read more
Answered on 12/14/07, 11:34 am


Related Questions & Answers

More Intellectual Property questions and answers in Ohio