QUESTION
I have photographic proof I built and altered a sketch of a fiberglass body kit from sketch with alterations. Who gets to patent this design? Miami,FL
Asked on Aug 16th, 2012 on Patents - Florida
More details to this question:
A customer wanted me to create a fiberglass body kit for a car for $12k and I accepted to do just that but without relinquishing my rights to the mold of the body kit unless I received payment $50k in total for the creation of the kit and the mold to market the kit(verbal agreement) . The customer had a sketch of a design he wanted on the car but during the actual creation several pieces was altered to give a more appealing look by me with approval of the client. When the kit was completed he gave me $7k. So he asked me to handle some other projects for him that involved painting a few of his cars, and creating a lip to add to the body kit I created. He has a complete body kit now and he refuses to pay for the work I did for him and trying to hold the monies unless I give him the original mold that we verbally agreed he had to pay $50,000 for and he owes me money. He wants to patent the mold as his design but it is both of ours.He refuses to jointly patently, what can I do?
1 ANSWER
You will have to take him to court for the money he owes based on the contract. As for the design patent, you should be protecting the appearance of the assembled kit and the novel parts of the kit via design patent. Those parts that were solely created by you, you could file for in your own name and those parts and the overall appears of the assembled kit with those jointly created parts would be filed for in both of your names. If the customer refuses to sign the papers, there are procedures within the US Patent and Trademark Office to deal with such circumstances. You need to see a contract lawyer for the breach of contract issues and a patent lawyer to handle the design patent filings.
Answered on Aug 17th, 2012 at 8:51 AM