Thanks for all the responses, very helpful :)

Basically the company is in a financial problem BUT has a possible
customer that may come good for them in which case they survive..
maybe... as the company is not well built / driven...

Suppose may main idea from all of this is I don't wont to see my
products not reach there full potential, or even drop off all together,
and so the question of who owns the IP of it started coming up.

Ideally if all goes bad I would love to take it and run with it myself
as I know how to make it 100% better :)

Cheers!
Peter Mcalpine

> -----Original Message-----
> From: pic microcontroller discussion list
> [mailto:PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU]On Behalf Of Don Holtz
> Sent: Thursday, 17 July 2003 1:38 PM
> To: PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
> Subject: Re: [OT]: Re: Intellectual property right - who owns them?
>
>
> Hi,
>
> This is a tough issue.  I've had similar issues arrise several
> times - mostly because I HATE to have things lawyered to death.
> I've had several good projects die a painful death in the hands
> of some ultra-keen lawyers.
>
> My take on it is:
>
> - you must have had a "meeting of minds" when you started working
> for your client
> - you didn't have a written contract, but you did have a type of
> verbal contract to do X for $Y, with such and such technical objectives.
> - at the outset there was probably no question that ownership
> would go to your client, since they were paying you to do it for them
> - it is only now that the ownership question has come up since
> they have not being paying you recently
> - there are probably three choices now:
> - one - sue them for the outstanding money
> - two - pay them back what they have paid you claiming breach,
> and take ownership for yourself.
> - three - take what they have paid you, and forget about what
> they owe you.  Using the knowledge that you have gained working
> on the project, do it over again from scratch making it "better",
> and do what you want with it since it is a new creation that will
> be completely owned by you.
>
> Have you spoken to them about why they haven't paid you?  Are
> they happy with your work, or is there some economic reason for the lapse?
>
> Take care all.
>
> Don
>
>
> At 08:05 PM 7/16/03 -0400, you wrote:
> >The impact of your issue /is/ very specific to where you
> >are AND I'm no lawyer.  But here is my understanding of
> >U.S. copyright law:
> >
> >In the absence of an agreement to the contrary -or- a
> >traditional employment arrangement (where the work is
> >produced within the scope of that employment at the
> >direction of the employer), the creator of a work owns the
> >work.
> >
> >A company that pays a contractor to have the work done has
> >'shop rights' and can use the work freely /in house/ but
> >does not 'own' the work unless it is expressly granted in
> >a written instrument.  In this situation the contractor
> >cannot forbit the work's use by the client, but CAN
> >prohibit further distribution of the work by the client.
> >
> >I do not know if 'shop rights' includes rights to original
> >code, design docs, etc... but I suspect not.
> >
> >Again, I'm no lawyer - just my .02
> >
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