[Jewelry making - Article 00196] - Re: [Orchid] Need of business advice

[Daniel Spirer]

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>      Also, my opinion of the legal question (though I am NOT a
>     lawyer,) is that the 200 designs definitely are your legal
>     property. YOU owned the copyright when you created to work, unless
>     you had signed a 'work for hire' agreement with your parents. 

David,

    I don't usually disagree with much you say, but I believe in this
    case that if she was actually employed by her parents (i.e.
    receiving a paycheck from them for her work) that the designs very
    definitely belong to her parents. When an inventor invents something
    while working for a corporation and while being paid for his time to
    do it, the corporation owns the patent, not the inventor.  That
    being said, however, the reality is that, legally, if no copyrights
    were applied for it doesn't really matter if she wants to just go
    back and duplicate the designs again.  It would be highly unlikely
    that her parents would pursue her legally anyway if she simply
    started making all of the designs again from scratch.  I suspect the
    concept that without true copyright, designs can be replicated, is
    going to ruffle a few feathers on Orchid, but I have recently had
    extensive legal advice presented to me on this very topic and unless
    copyrights were applied for there isn't a whole lot anyone can do
    about her decision to replicate her own designs.  However I agree
    with you and the other respondents that the problem here is not
    really copyright or the designs but how to resolve the more general
    issues with her parents. 

Daniel R. Spirer, G.G.
Daniel R. Spirer Jewelers, LLC
1780 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA 02140
daniel AT spirerjewelers.com
www.spirerjewelers.com

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