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Intellectual property of confidential project?
Hello there. I am a freelancer working for an agency who work for a large corporation. My boss at the agency has a signed a confidentiality contract, but it was for her personally and I have signed nothing. The contract was badly written and mentioned her all through, except for the end where it mentioned 'the company'. I assume this doens't cover me?
I have been working on a confidential project for the past month. Now the big corporation want to put the project on hold. They are demanding that the agency put all the work on their servers securely, as it's confidential. One part of the project is an extensive 3D model I have built from scratch on my own PC for the project, from which I can generate the videos they pay me for (The brief was to create videos, the 3D model is the way I do this).
I am happy to hand over generated video, but If I hand the 3D model over to the agency, they can use all my hard work to make the videos and I lose out.
What can I legally do? Is the model my intellectual property even thoguh it's based on a secret product that's not been revealed yet? :eek2 Please, can someone help me...?
I have been working on a confidential project for the past month. Now the big corporation want to put the project on hold. They are demanding that the agency put all the work on their servers securely, as it's confidential. One part of the project is an extensive 3D model I have built from scratch on my own PC for the project, from which I can generate the videos they pay me for (The brief was to create videos, the 3D model is the way I do this).
I am happy to hand over generated video, but If I hand the 3D model over to the agency, they can use all my hard work to make the videos and I lose out.
What can I legally do? Is the model my intellectual property even thoguh it's based on a secret product that's not been revealed yet? :eek2 Please, can someone help me...?
- Contact in PM
Unique-look design
Messages count : 3Likes count : 0Registration : 24 February 2008These are my thoughts on your problem, although I am not an expert but I have had some experience in this area. Intelectual property usually refers to who came up with the original idea and can generally be proven through dates given on computer files, emails etc.
If you came up with the idea solely by yourself this should be your intelectual property unless otherwise stated in any contract you have signed. Although you are a freelancer you may still count as an employee on the books (not entirely sure) therefore my advice would be to seek some kind of legal advice if your that concerned about the situation. I
t may be an idea to have a word with your boss or directly with a representative of the company your doing the 3D work for, as they may be able to sort out some kind of deal or contract were you can continue work on this if it is used (and continue to get paid). However if they say by rights its theirs and they are therefore not willing to come to any deal, I would then check your options through a solicitor to get some legal advice, at least then you know if its worth persuing or not.
Hope this helpsSam Fillingham - Contact in PM
Image Resolutions
Messages count : 6Likes count : 0Registration : 14 March 2008Personally I would say this issue is the lack of any nda/set contract for what you have done.
You need to talk to the main client or get your boss to do so to get it sorted out as technically speaking without you signing anything your boss has broken his nda.
As to the work, I follow a simple rule, if its not paid for then they don't get the development work (ie 3d models etc) but they can have all the finished stills/animations - however I make this clear at the beginning.
If you have to end up giving all the work to them, I would probably do a password protected zip/rar (multi part to make it harder for password cracking) or something similar. I would also get a contract signed which states that none of the 3d development work etc can be used without your express permission.