Design Rights...help

Design Discussions general design discussion
1

Hello

I’m slightly concerned about a project I’ve undertaken and if anyone could offer their experiences that would be great :wink:

I’ll try and keep this short and to the point.
I just graduated from university studying Product Design, and got a job working with illustrators as a CG Artist & Product Visualiser in a studio.

  • A small business approached me asking to visualise an idea they had for a meeting with some investors.

The idea was for some new gym equipment, it was not a large job and they were charged to mock up their idea.

We had a meeting to discuss corrections, and they asked for my input on their idea and if I could suggest anything as they had no knowledge of design.

I did some research and came back to them with some new approaches, however, made them aware that they did not own the ideas. This service was not paid for and was in my spare time.

They loved it and we agreed they could show the concept to the investors.

Some more development happened with an engineer and I have been told the investors are putting some money behind it.

Do I have any rights or need to buy design rights?
Do I sell the ownership of the idea or agree a partnership?

The product may be a total failure but I’m just slightly concerned what route to take…if any?

Adam :slight_smile:

2

Adam, you need to hire a lawyer with intellectual property law experience. You have many rights that need to be protected and exploited in the right fashion. An idea cannot be protected, but an expression of an idea may be protected. They’ve hired you to come up with various expressions of an idea. Had you signed a work for hire agreement, then they may have all the rights to your work (this is a common practice if you were their employee). You don’t seem to be in this position. Again, go find a lawyer!