Legal Question in Intellectual Property in Texas

Do I still own the copyright?

Hello, I am an independent video

producer that does work for a large

firm. There are no written

agreements that my work is a ''work

for hire''. I am not on the payroll,

and I work from my own office

offsite. I also receive a 1099-misc a

the end of the year... I am not an

employee.

My question is, do I still retain

copyrights to work I did, if I am

required by the company to place a

''�Copyright ''Their Company'' 2008''

on all of my products? Or is that

essentially me signing the copyrights

to them?

Thanks


Asked on 9/28/08, 8:03 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Nancy Delain Delain Law Office, PLLC

Re: Do I still own the copyright?

Excellent question.

Your putting "�20xx, CompanyName. All rights reserved" on your materials holds out to the public that Company owns the copyright. However, the lack of written agreement that this is a "work made for hire" flies in the face of the statutory requirement for such works. I'd say there's a good case to be made either way; I don't know of a precedent that answers this question.

However, that does NOT say that you want to be the seminal case. Being a seminal case is a very pricey proposition with no guarantee (sometimes no clue) of which way the judge will rule.

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.

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Answered on 10/05/08, 4:13 pm


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