[Jewelry making - Article 00739] - Re: [Orchid] Models for medical jewelry

[James White]

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>         I also have a question on the copyright of said designs.  I
>     want to make sure that my initial outlay is the only financial
>     obligation I have to the modeler for each design I have seen a few
>     modellers on the net who want a portion of each piece sold. What is
>     the terminology I need in contracts to avoid this dilemma. 

    Google search on '"work for hire" assignment' (excluding the single
    quotes--AKA apostrophes) and you'll get lots of material to study.
    In short, if they are simply executing your design expressions they
    would not be the "author," you still would be and thus would own the
    entire bag of copyright rights. However a contract is strongly
    recommended. Technically then all your contract needs is a statement
    to the above effect, BUT. Most of the time it won't hurt to go beyond
    that and specify that it is a "work for hire"----thus if they
    contribute anything classifiable as "expression" beyond your
    instruction you'll still own it. And lastly, but it does involve more
    paperwork, you can include a clause that specifies that "should" any
    "authorship" ever be construed to be theirs that they assign 100% of
    it to you. 

    The reality is that the vast majority of the people you would WANT
    to work with would happily sign the first simple statement and never
    bother you after that. The second clause ("work for hire") will stop
    the <bleeps> that want to steal your work and still won't even get a
    blink from the parties you WANT to work with. And the third clause
    will (generally) stop the REAL <bleeps> that have the brass to haul
    you into court to try to kill the contract----and again won't get
    even a second thought from the folks you WANT to work with. Your
    Intellectual Property Attorney will help you sort out just what you
    probably should include contract wise for what you want to do design
    and development wise. 

    Did you notice that "WANT to work with"? Rule number one of
    contracts is NEVER EVER SIGN A CONTRACT with someone you don't feel
    you'd be comfortable dealing with on just a handshake. The purpose of
    a contract is NOT to FORCE anyone to do anything but to provide a
    written agreement so you all know and remember what you intended the
    deal to be. 

>         Can CAD/CAM programs cut & paste? 

    Yes. But they'll have a whole lot easier time of it if YOU spell out
    IN ADVANCE what you expect to be modifying (and if you don't
    mis-guess in what you spell out!). 

>         any? Oh, if it helps, I want the snake and the staff to be a
>     graduated rounded thickness, not the "stamp" look that is so
>     common. 

    No matter what you do with it it would not surprise me if the
    Copyright Office required you to totally disclaim any rights in the
    basic symbols (and they likely may so amend your copyright
    registration application(s) without your approval anyway---even
    though they know you would be laughed out of court for any attempt to
    claim copyright infringement of such). 

    Also, if I were you, I'd do some careful research on the symbols to
    see if you have as much freedom as you'd like to "adjust" them and/or
    use them as you want. 

    And ask a good liability lawyer how much damages you might expect to
    pay should your object/symbology go UNDETECTED by emergency crews and
    whether you could live with the costs of the insurance and the
    knowledge you contributed to a death or severe impairment (or even
    just a minor temporary problem). 

    Heck, ask yourself if YOU'D be happy to accept the consequences if
    your own creation FAILED to get the needed OBSERVATION/RESPONSE when
    it counted while YOU were wearing it. That may change your perception
    of "ugly":-). 

James E. White
Inventor, Marketer, and Author of "Will It Sell? How to Determine If
Your Invention Is Profitably Marketable (Before Wasting Money on a
Patent)"  Info Sites:   www.willitsell.com    www.inventorhome.com,
www.idearights.com www.taletyano.com www.booksforinventors.com

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