Legal Question in Intellectual Property in Washington

Payment not Received

I am an independant contractor. I had a retainer agreement with a European company. They were to pay me for x hours of service- payable in 12 equal payments each month. Part of these hours go to the development and maintenance of their Database Application they sell- which I delivered. The year is now over and they still owe me nearly 30% of development fees. Late chareges apply each month but that won't matter if I can't get paid. The company then, filed bankrupcy and shifted ownership of the product to a new company. Now, I may never get paid for the work I did. He says he will pay me when he can but cannot put it in writing under the new company name because he could get into trouble with bankrupcy laws.(?) Do I have an rights here? Seems I would have some ownership of the product?


Asked on 2/23/03, 3:10 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Bruce Burdick Burdick Law Firm

Re: Payment not Received

See a copyright lawyer. It sounds like you are an independent contractor and this sounds like it is not a work for hire. If so, you own the copyright and the bankrupt company and new company will have to claim some sort of license. You are likely left with ownership of the copyrights, but with an executory contract (copyright license) to the bankrupt that was accepted by the bankruptcy estate and assigned to some third party to help pay creditors. There is good chance you can terminate the license for non-payment of licensing fees.

I think the odds are you will lose this dispute, but there is enough chance, depending on the facts relative to payment agreements, that you might win to make it probably worth the effort to pursue it with a copyright lawyer.

If I can help, let me know. If nothing else, I can refer you to a good lawyer.

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Answered on 2/23/03, 7:59 pm


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