Legal Question in Intellectual Property in Texas

Copyright automatically attaches to your painting the moment you brush paint onto the canvas. However, in order to protect your work and sue a restaurant in federal court, you must first register the painting with the US Copyright Office.

As to who owns the copyright to this particular painting (which is the underlying work for any photographic reproductions), the answer will depend on whether the work was created as a Work-For-Hire. If the restaurant paid you a commission to create the painting specifically for their use, the painting will most likely be considered a Work-For-Hire and, therefore, the restaurant will be considered the owner of the copyrights in that painting. However, if the restaurant simply purchased the painting from you, then you own the copyrights in that painting unless you assigned those rights to the restaurant.

I highly recommend that you contact an Intellectual Property Attorney to discuss your copyrights related to any photographic reproductions of that painting.

THE COMMENTS CONTAINED HEREIN ARE FOR GENERAL INFORMATIONAL USE ONLY- NOT AS LEGAL OPINION. NO ATTORNEY/CLIENT RELATIONSHIP HAS BEEN ESTABLISHED.