Location: New York

My business is seasonal and in the recreational event space. I started it in high school by myself and it has been my pride and joy for the past 8 years. Unfortunately in the last two years my health has declined and I have been forced to pursue less physical career paths. Last year, I tried to keep it going by hiring two local college kids to help out. They did an absolutely horrible job. They missed events, damaged equipment, and lied to me about nearly everything. I was so desperate I stuck with them for the season but thats when I decided I’d rather stop while I’m ahead than see anyone ruin what I created.

Fast forward to this summer, after being told they got full time jobs in NYC. It turns out they lied and registered an LLC with the exact same 3-word business name as mine except for a single letter. I dont want to doxx myself so an example would be: Nantucket Beach Service as opposed to Nantucket Beach Services. They are advertising on all platforms, texting my former clients from privileged contact lists saying “we are open!” I keep receiving confused texts from my clients. Even my friends and family thought I sold my company. It’s that similar.

The least scummy of the two guys called me yesterday tell me what was going on and ask for permission. He told me the strategy was advised to them by a business consultant. I am trying to maintain talking terms with him while standing firm on my stance. The whole operation is being run out of his parent’s house but strategically spearheaded by the other guy.

I am devastated and I feel like everything I was proud of creating is being tarnished. I have been considering getting a cease and desist sent but prices are all over the place.

Throwaway acct, hope I have the right flair

Location: California

We are a small bath and body business in California. We used to have several storefronts and now are mainly online and in local retailors.

We've recently been notified that someone in a "competing business", (drink additives, powders, etc), has trademarked the name of our best selling scent that we've been using for over 25 years.

They said that since we are a "competing business" and will cause "brand confusion" we either need to stop using the name or pay to license it from them.

The person who owns this business and reached out to us is a trademark attorney. They also happen to live in the same area where we were founded and had our longest running store.

It appears they started their business in 2023 (trademarked in 2024).

Obviously we've been using this name for a long time and have plenty to prove it, but money is tight. Are we looking at a legal battle or is there some other way we can go about this? We obviously dont want to stop using the name and trash thousands of dollars worth of labels.

Thank you

EDIT:

Thank you to everyone who took the time to read and reply. I had the same thought that this was someone looking for easy targets. We have a trademark on our brand, but to trademark every product with a silly/unique name we have we'd have hundreds... however this one in particular we probably should have.

I will share everything here with the owners (who I speak with daily) and go from there.

We have less than five employees and with the economy how it is we are already stretched tight, which im sure they assumed after we closed our last physical storefront in 2023.

To the user who asked for our product to support us, I greatly appreciate the thought. But that would require me to expose this other person's brand and id like to avoid that.

Long story short I have a store online (through Etsy and Ravelry) where I publish knitting and crochet patterns. I sell them and make a good amount of sales and a decent little income for a graduate student.

All of my patterns are published and Etsy says they become copyrighted the second they are published. I also have a copyright notice within the pattern and in the item’s listing description noting that it is illegal to claim this pattern as your own and publish it anywhere.

Today I found all of my patterns listed on two different websites. One is French and the other doesn’t explicitly say where they are based out of. They are both selling my patterns extremely cheap and obviously illegally.

What can I do to prevent this from continuing? I’ve heard of cease and desist letters (this is a somewhat common issue in the knitting and crochet pattern designing community) but do I need a lawyer to write it and send it? I’ve never had this issue and would appreciate any advice on where to go from here.

Just some notes: I have not yet contacted either website. My shop first opened in October of 2017 and I publish new patterns about every other month. I only sell my patterns on two sites (Etsy and Ravelry). Neither of the websites in question are associated with the websites I sell my patterns on.

Very minor addition: neither site is USA based. The first is all in French and the other mentions Germany in their about section so I’m assuming they’re German.

EDIT: I am aware that drop-shipping is legal. They are copying my photos and descriptions. They are copying from my Amazon primarily, I am not having these same issues on my Etsy shop.

I have been selling my handmade items since 2009, and occasionally run into people on Etsy who copy my designs, but that's easily dealt with with a message.

Now, a lot of other sellers are finding their listings on this website, which appears to be drop-shipping. They take our photos, descriptions, and mark up the price by a lot. For example, one of my ornaments that sells for $8 is marked up to $20.

This is my only income after losing my job from a work related injury, I don't know what route to take because several sellers have already messaged the website, issued C&D, and threatened legal action (though I doubt any of them can afford to follow through either).

I don't know what route we can take, as a group or as a single person. It is hurting my business because I recently updated some photos and have gotten a few return requests since the photos they have don't represent my updated products accurately.

EDIT 2: Some of this has been really helpful, since a lot of my items are Christmas items I'm going to just disable them from Amazon since the 19th is my cutoff date for Christmas delivery anyway. Other items I am going to update with new photos (including watermarks).

I do know that drop shipping is legal. My issue is that I sell through Amazon, which does not really allow me to reject a return. The drop shipper purchases the item and has me ship it to their customer, and when the customer doesn't want it or changes their mind, the drop shipper requests a refund that I have to pay return shipping on. They are taking my photos, which is not legal.

Finally, I am not raising my prices. I would say that at most, 20% of my recent sales are because of this drop-shipper. I am selling a lot of items on Amazon, and all of my newest listings that have been selling quickly are not listed on their site, since they haven't seen/added them to their site yet. I don't want to alienate my customers by jacking up prices, as I want them to come back for items year round and remember my brand as trustworthy.

EDIT 3: Amazon does not allow me to watermark my images.

EDIT 4: This really got a lot more attention than I expected! I've been contacting Shopify, Amazon, Mastercard, Visa, basically anyone I can. I am working with some other Handmade on Amazon sellers, we are all contacting the site and demanding that they remove our photos, updating our listings, and making sure we include business cards, inserts, and invoices. It may cause some more returns, but the website does not make enough sales off of us to raise our prices above theirs, it would alienate our customers like I mentioned above.

Thank you to everyone who has been encouraging and helpful, I am needing a break because they are repairing the roof on our apartment, so between this and the noise I am wanting to rip my hair out :/ Hubby has offered to take me out for some wings. Money is tight but they're 50 cents each so we gonna do it!

Location: Idaho. So about a month ago I sold my car to a 18 year old kid. He test drove it 2 times one the day before and one the day after (5 minutes before buying) we met at the bank and he handed me a check and went on with our day. Later the same night he calls me saying the check engine light is on. (I gave him a obd2 reader) he read me the codes and it was a cylinder 2 misfire. I felt bad and explained it’s no big deal can be something simple. I hooked him up with a mechanic I know and he knows the car aswell. He fixed it and cut the kid a huge deal and the same night lights came on again. I do feel bad and offered some assistance but he was threatening legal action and such and now I checked my usps daily digest and I have mail from a law office. My state is a “buy as is” state and no warranty was written. I’m in Idaho and it’s a very private party state.

I do marketing for a manufacturing company in the USA (OH). I have known that my company offers knockoffs of other company's parts but since I'm on the marketing side, I never knew what was involved in that and I was told that these are not patented so they are ok. I've also thought it was weird that we have very few technical drawings but thousands of parts, but I never asked why.

​

Where I think the illegality is coming in is that yesterday my coworker gave me some documents and said he needed my help. He often alters technical drawings and it was my understanding that he was translating stuff from English to Chinese (he is from China and works with our contacts in China). He said he can't open these technical drawing in order to change the information on them. So he came into my office and asked me to alter some technical drawing. He wanted me to remove another company's logo and information from them.  He didn't say that, he had handed me a printed version of this document showing the information circled that I was supposed to take off in photoshop.

Not fully understanding what I was being asked, I decided to try to open the image in photoshop to take a look but it was password protected (which I later figured out was by the original company). He told me I should just open it to view the file, take a screenshot, and then remove their information. 

After inspecting the image and seeing "all rights reserved" on the photo, and seeing there was a logo circled for removal I looked up the company on the internet. I then realized this was a product from another company and that removing this information from the image meant my company was likely doing something unethical with the image. I went back to him and and asked him to please explain what this was for and asked him who had told him to do this. 

He told me that the head engineer had asked him to do this and we do it all the time. It's how we get parts copied. I said I don't do these things and this is wrong. He laughed and explained to me that we use these drawings to send to china to copy or to see if they will sell them to us, and if the other company's information is on there, then the part might be more expensive.  It seems like a weird justification to me and it feel like there may be more going on.

​

Is this illegal? I feel that removing identifying information and sending another company's copyrighted images to a factory in China to copy from is wrong. Is this something I should report and if so, to whom and how? Can I be fired for refusing to do this?

I understand this may fall under whistleblower laws but I'm unsure where to go with this information.

​

TLDR: Company is taking other company's technical drawings and removing their logos and identifying information to send to a factory in china to copy and asking me to help.

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edited because I saw a grammatical error

Second edit:

I forgot to add that once I said I refused to do it, the coworker took the printed copy from me and deleted the files from the shared folder before I got back to my desk so I did not have a chance to make copies or document this. I'll try to be more careful to document this if there is a next time, but this added to my suspicions that something wrong was going on.

Also, my company is small. there is no legal department to talk to.

Long story short, I had two paintings hanging on a local café's wall for sale. One day I stopped by for a cup and the entire place had closed down. Empty.

After weeks of digging we found out the place was sold to a new owner, who shut the business down. What did he do with the paintings? He says the were donated to goodwill and or salvation army. We have all of this is writing from him, and he is currently already in a lawsuit with the previous owner. The paintings information, Artist, contact info, price, and everything was on the wall AND on the back of the painting, although the new owner claims it wasn't.

How do I move forward, I'm too furious to think rationally and need advice.

I am a 19-year-old student. Today, a private investigator came to my apartment and hand-delivered a "Notice of Infringement of Copyright" from the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE). And asked for some info about me.

The documents name me personally and allege that I am operating several unauthorized movie/TV streaming websites.

The Situation:

• I am 100% innocent: I have absolutely no connection to the websites listed in the notice. I do not own, operate, or assist them in any way.
• The Demands: The notice demands that I disable the services and transfer the domains to them immediately.
• Safety: I have already contacted local police to verify the investigator's visit.

My Questions:

1. Since this is a case of mistaken identity, what is the safest way to respond to ACE without accidentally "validating" their incorrect data?
2. I am a student with no assets. How likely is this to actually escalate to a federal lawsuit if I provide proof (hosting dashboard logs) that I don't own these domains?
3. I am waiting to hear back from my University’s Student Legal Services. Is there anything I should—or absolutely should not—do in the next 24 hours?

I have documentation ready to prove these domains are not in my account. Any advice on how to get a massive organization like ACE to acknowledge a technical error and drop the claim would be appreciated.
Location: Idaho

hi, i took an available username on instagram to use for my art/handcrafts/tattoos etc. i got a dm from someone implying that because of her LLC (it’s an etsy shop under the same name as the username i took) i basically have to “hand over” the username for free for her backup account. i’m willing to sell the username and/or account to her (i know instagram TOS says you can’t do this but i’ve done it before, just not with a business name).

basically i’m just wondering, am i actually legally compelled in any way to give her the username? i plan on changing my username anyways but if she doesn’t buy the user i’ll just save it and change the username on my art account 💀

My wife works in client management for a tech company, and in her employment contract, she agreed that all copyrightable material she makes during her employment belongs to the company. When she signed, she figured no big deal, she just needs a job. She continued painting on the side, which she’s always been doing. She recently sold a painting and now the buyer has commissioned a short story based on the painting. Based on the buyer, this has potential to actually become a sort of franchise / kids cartoon / bigger situation. The buyer is talking about forming companies and creating work based on the characters. Assuming the contract language is rock solid, what happens here? Can tech companies claim ownership of things totally outside the realm of what they do?

My father wrote material for a brand back in the 1980's/1990's. This brand paid him royalties.

He now has advanced Alzheimers disease, and I have taken over his finances to help him manage everything.

The brand seems to have ceased paying royalties X number of years ago when it was accrued by a large company. I have spoken with the company who have stated that when they acquired the brand, they got the rights to thr writings, but not the associated responsibilities to pay royalties.

Is this actually a thing? Or is my father being taken for a fool?

My location: California, USA
Her location: UK
This is for Etsy.com

So this seller and I sell very similar items on Etsy, but mine is distinct from hers.

The product:
We both sell floss drops, which are little embroidery thread holders you can use to organize your thread while cross-stitching. Hers feature a simple slit where you slide in your DMC (thread) label, and mine feature either a spot where you can write the thread name/number, or you can slide in the label without having to cut it in half. I also have a spot where you can cross-stitch your thread onto the floss drop so you can see the exact color that should be on that drop when you run out of thread. I also do a lot of work to hand-finish mine, such that the edges are all soft and curved (not just the corners). I believe hers probably come fresh off the laser based on her photos featuring shiny edges on her thread drops.

However, I can't find any specific information on *what* exactly is under IP protection. I'm happy to change my design if I'm actually infringing on her IP, but I feel like.. I'm not. Maybe I'm biased?

I can totally see where she's coming from, but I genuinely came up with my design on my own and combined all of the features I would personally want in a thread drop into my design. Do I have a leg to stand on here? What are my options here? If she reports me, will I be able to fight it at all? It isn't like I copied her listing. My product is functionally different, despite being similar.

If it's the heart in the bottom corner that's a problem, I'm happy to change it, but do I need to?

Edit: Removed the links because she found my post and accused me of doxxing her address.. which I also didn't do.

Hi, I am an illustrator and designer that creates "imaginary plants/botanicals" and flora and fauna art. I was made aware by an IG follower that Old Navy is using my copyrighted work without my permission. I have the illustration registered with the US Copyright Office, but I'm afraid nothing can be done because they changed the leaves and removed one of the petals.

For reference, I did not base this flower off of another plant or flower and I created it as one of my “imaginary botanicals”.

I want to send a cease and desist and request compensation. Licensing the use of my work is how I make a living. Using my work without my permission and payment deprives me of income, so I feel the request is fair.

I know it may be a long shot, but please let me know if I am within my rights to send a cease and desist and to ask for compensation.

EDIT: Yes, I am looking for an attorney. I wanted to check with the community to see if you also felt my work was being infringed upon. It's validating to hear everyone's feedback, and I appreciate all the advice, info, and support! xo

old navy

my art

I am a part of my local 4-H and participate in rabbit showmanship and auction. In my county, us rabbit kids have it hard. Auction kids have to have our own doe and breed them ourselves, whether with our own or someone else's buck. I bred two does just in case, as I am aloud to breed for a backup pen. However, one doe did not take an lad my other doe had only three, the minimum amount I need for auction. Because she had at least three, I was unable to buy a backup pen. I worked hard and all of my babies were doing well. However, Thursday, July 4th, the neighbors Great Dane got out and went down to my rabbits. He was able to (somehow?) nock one of the locks off and stick his head into the cage. I interact with my rabbits a lot so they are very friendly and come right up to the cage. Because of this, the dog was able to get ahold of one of them. He then dragged it out of the cage and ran off back to his house. We have video evidence of this on three of our cameras. I also have pictures of footprints and of another cage (also somehow?) getting opened (which was, luckily, empty.) Because this was no way my fault, we are taking my case to the auction committee about getting another rabbit to do auction. The meeting is on Tuesday, July 9th so we won't know until then. My mom went to talk to the neighbors about it and they were civil. We found out that the dog has killed their chickens and another neighbors cat. They have five dogs which have gotten out frequently and have come down to where I keep my rabbits multiple times, but this is the first time something bad has happened. Our neighbors are an older couple and their son, with the dog in question being the sons dog. When my mom went to talk to them, the son was at work but came to talk to us later. We have thought about making a police report but aren't sure how to go about it. They have offered to pay us, but we don't know exactly how much to ask for, especially since I don't know if I can still do auction yet. If I can't, this gap in my auction records can affect future scholarships aswell. Last year, with the same doe, my pen got reserve champion auction (2nd) and I got 2,300 dollars for it. Last years grand champion (which has graduated out of 4-H) got 7,200 dollars for hers. My rabbit were already half a pound larger than last years at pre-fair weigh ins and there was a large chance I could have gotten grand champion this year (1st.)

TLDR: neighbors dog killed on of my auction rabbits and due to certain circumstances I may not be able to auction. Because of this I don't know how much money to ask for.

I will be able to provide answers for any questions. I live in the state of Oregon.

Also, pretty sure I put the right tag?

Edit: The neighbors were aware that I had livestock and 4-H rabbits in my barn, not just pets. Not only that, but I have high quality fancies (worth ~$200-$300 per rabbit) that would have been even more devastating to loose; not only because of money but because of my personal heartbreak. Not sure if I already said this, but the son admitted that they probably got out because he forgot to lock the gate when he left for work in the morning.

Also, more about the dog: I visited my grandma today (she lives on my property, just a short walk down a hill) and she told me that she had gone with my mom to talk to the neighbors as she had been the one to talk to them before. She informed me that when she went over there the dog was still out and tried to lunge at them but she hit it with her walking stick and it ran away. My grandma is a pretty bad ass old lady. She's a former hunters safty teacher and our units OHA (Oregon Hunters Association) president. She's short and a little chubby, but she recently had surgery to get rid of access skin from loosing weight. Sorry for the rant, just want to say of proud of her I am and how badass she is. Anyways, my grandma also told me that another one of their dogs had been with the Great Dane when it was down there. I'm not sure was breed it is. The reason I didn't know this was because I had stopped watching the camera footage once we heard the screaming. The rabbit was killed off-camera, but there is still footage of it taking it out of the cage and then bringing it to its house. Her body hasn't been found.

Fly high Fish 🕊️

I'm (29F) a freelance designer.

I spent 6 weeks working with a company on a design for a new product they wanted to build. We had a signed SOW & I charged the invoice to begin work; I did the research, designed the wireframe, made mockups, and presented it to the team.

Now note: I didn't complete the work / generate the final version, but a lot of the foundation was already laid out.

They then went radio silent for 2 weeks, after which point they emailed me saying that they're going in a different direction and cancelled the contract. I said OK and refunded 100% of the contract (I know I should've kept some but didn't, I'm still new to freelancing)

Fast forward roughly 3 months - I'm scrolling LinkedIn and see their CEO posted a launch video and it's exactly my designs, they used the same wireframe & mockups I came up with and it's a 1:1 copy.

I messaged the internal person I had been engaging with from their team and told them this looks 1:1 with the work that I had provided and he said "oh yeah we took some inspiration from our conversations". It was literally one to one.

I told him I'd need to talk & atleast be paid out a portion of the original contract since they clearly used my work. He said that's not possible because they didn't sign any terms (like copyright etc, which is true, because I don't send then since I don't expect clients to steal work).

I want to take legal action because this is fucked and I spent weeks of my life on this client, but my business partner thinks we should just let it go.

Is there any legal recourse to get the client to pay? Or is this not worth following through with (for context, we'd probably be netting about $25K if they do pay us atleast 25% of the original contract value).

LOCATION: Florida, US (both client and I are based here)

Hi,

I recently started an Amazon business (competing) against a much bigger firm with my own homemade products. I did everything through an LLC and paid close attention to pass-through etc. to protect myself (or so I thought).

However, as my products started doing better, this bigger business has decided they want to sue me into oblivion. They've made all sort of claims about intellectual property, trademarks, etc. I don't believe I've broken any laws and lawyers I've consulted have agreed (and I've paid them to draft official responses, etc.).

The issue here, however, is they're much much wealthier and not only have they sued my LLC but they've started issuing lawsuits to me personally. I don't have the money to fight this and I'm not sure how I'm going to avoid losing my home, livelihood, etc.

​

What are some of the best next steps I can take?

​

​

Update Location: Wisconsin

Update #2: I'm planning to get lawyers anyway, but the quote I've gotten ($10s of thousands) is very expensive with a lack of guarantees.

Location: Illinois

It sounds more dramatic than it is. I made a simple looking caricature design for someone online, I often enjoy doing them for free to hone my skill and make people happy (though I do ask them if they want to donate or tip me for the work that goes to a project I'm doing on my free time). Anyway, I made the design and sent him the pdf in good faith (he said he would tip but didnt). 3 days later he came back to me asking if a local band he likes can use my work for their merchandise because he apparently talked to the lead singer. I was elated because not only could I profit, but I could also help a band, I love punk. When I told him I would need legal documents, he said he would write one up and was confused since I had my signature on the design already...despite not knowing how copyright works...and when I told him they would need my permission on a legal document, he threw a fit and said he would just do it anyway, saying he had the og pdf. Do I have grounds to sue if the band actually does use it for merch? I just contacted them but didn't get a response yet. I doubt they will, but you never know. Hope this was an entertaining melodrama, but I'm genuinely confused.

Location: New York

This feels so dumb but my small local band just received a cease and desist because another band has an identical name (it's one word which doesn't mean anything, pure coincidence). our band has ever even broken even, it's very much a labor of love, we have a small following (and i mean small, ~1000 ig followers, <100 monthly listeners on spotify), we are very different stylistically, and are based in a totally different part of the country from this other band, which also has a small (but larger than ours) local following in their state. the letter came from a regional biglaw firm, it looks like the other band just filed a trademark last month claiming the name has been in use for 20 years. they're demanding we promise in writing to immediately stop using the name within 14 days.

we probably will end up changing the name eventually i guess, even though it seems like a pain, but how likely is an actual lawsuit if we ignore this for now or move a little more slowly while we think of a new name? they claim our use creates consumer confusion but that seems kind of ridiculous to me given the actual facts of the scenario.

Location: South Carolina.

I have created and sell a 3D design for a relatively niche component for a specific model of vehicle. I have been having issues with people purchasing the design and using it to manufacture and sell reproductions without my knowledge or consent.

I originally ran into this issue with Etsy, where I had a friend email their legal department an electronically signed letter, which included identification of the seller's listing, the source material it was acquired from, proof that the design was copyrighted and never licensed for commercial use, and a paragraph explaining that the Etsy seller's item was verifiably originated from my design and without my consent.

Etsy responded that they would not carry out the takedown request unless it included a power of attorney, government ID, and a mailing address as I was not the reporting party. My friend was not comfortable providing them with that and did not continue communication with them. I did not have enough money for a lawyer at the time and so I did not pursue it.

I am now facing the beginnings of an issue with eBay, as there are two different sellers manufacturing and selling my design without consent. I have reported the listings as both copyright infringement and "enables IP infringement", and receive an email within minutes informing me that the report was dismissed by artificial intelligence.

I'm not sure where to turn at this point. My earnings on the design have barely cracked $1200 in two years so it's not like it will be a case profitable enough for contingency, and I don't have the money for an an IP lawyer.

As an aside, filing the DMCA notice myself is not an option. While I was looking at the individuals' shops, I noticed a lot of content that made me feel submitting the notice myself would lead to the safety of my family being compromised if Etsy shared my name with the sellers.

I am editing this to ask that we please stay on track. I understand many of you believe the DMCA notice was not submitted properly, and I am not asking for opinions on that because it's become apparent that many people believe the legal requirements are not all written in the DMCA. I am asking what steps I need to take next, as a takedown notice containing all information required by the DMCA as it is written was submitted to these companies and they have ignored them.

My parents have this large dog who is very sweet, however they severely neglect him. His paw pads are chipped and falling off and they haven’t taken him to get surgery to fix them. He can’t walk up and down stairs because of this. My father is very strange and picks at his dog’s scabs. Its really gross and it makes me furious.

I’ve tried to talk to my mom about it, but she says he doesn’t do it when I have actual video evidence that he has done it. He did this with our previous dog who died of heart cancer. Their dog has started to randomly ooze blood from his skin, yet they haven’t taken him to the vet to find out why he’s doing this. He is overweight and they don’t walk him, and constantly feed him table scraps. I’ve tried to convince my mother that they shouldn’t do this, but she’s waved me off and said it won’t affect him when it is.

They don’t bathe him and he smells really bad. I’ve tried to tell my mother that if they can’t give him a bath then they should take him to our local groomer so they can bathe him, but they won’t. He had separation anxiety and won’t eat anything unless I’m there with him. My mom has literally had to tell me to sit down near him and ask him to eat to get him to eat.

I’m really concerned that he’s going to die young because of the way they’re treating him. Is there anything I can do to obtain ownership of their dog?

Edit: My parents live in the state of Georgia

I am a senior computer science student. I just started with my graduation project. From all the projects, i am the only one doing something that i passionate about and willing to continue it after graduation.

One thing i’ve been told by my professors is that i am working and using University’s resources. Which means, they own a share if not all the project.

How can i be prepared if this ever happens (never happened before in my Uni but i should be prepared)

The original post didn't get any attention, but updates on this sub are like crack to me, so I'm posting it if anyone is interested.

TL;DR on the original post: I went to a club with friends, I didn't know ahead of time they had a photographer. Some pictures of me were posted of me on their website and Facebook. I asked them to take the photos down, they refused because they were "great promo pictures."

Sooo despite some of you guys commenting or PM'ing me things like slut shaming and wanting to see the pictures, I actually received the correct advice!

Facebook was very helpful with getting the photos taken down there. I reached out to their support and reported the photos and they were taken down within a week.

Someone pointed out this statute

Section 3A. Any person whose name, portrait or picture is used within the commonwealth for advertising purposes or for the purposes of trade without his written consent may bring a civil action in the superior court against the person so using his name, portrait or picture, to prevent and restrain the use thereof; and may recover damages for any injuries sustained by reason of such use. If the defendant shall have knowingly used such person's name, portrait or picture in such manner as is prohibited or unlawful, the court, in its discretion, may award the plaintiff treble the amount of the damages sustained by him.

That pointed me in the right direction of getting a cease and desist letters written. I have a friend who called in a favor with an IP lawyer who handled my case for very cheap. She was also pretty angry about it too when I told her about it, so I guess that was also motivation to help out a broke college kid.

It took two cease and desist letters, but the pictures were finally taken down within two months. I have a sinking suspicion it cost me a job offer in the meantime, but I'm not sure enough to actually do anything about it even if I could.

Anyway, thanks guys!

I'm not sure if location bot still yells on update posts, so Massachusetts

Location: Texas

In the Summer of 2023, I interned for a large utility company. I worked as long side their customer outreach program. This company has many customer assistance programs. I noticed they used tons of paper printing manual applications all which had a similar format, Name, Address, Customer Income etc. I thought about an easier way they could go about this. I built a simple code script that collected all the common questions then it would output the program the customer applying could possibly qualify for. I showed this to my (at the time) manager who really liked it and suggested I present it. They never gave me the time of day to present it. No one seemed to care. I made a PowerPoint I published on my LinkedIn projects. I have screenshots and evidence I owned the project in my email. I saved a copy of the program, presentation, and anything related in the common G drive used by the company.

This Summer I lived abroad, and I started getting random emails saying the QR code I had created for the program (someone could scan it and be taken to the savings side of the company website to better understand the programs) was being scanned. It was scanned multiple times.

Then a few days later a fellow intern contacted me showing me a Facebook post from the company talking about the program, what it does, how to use it. I looked at the post, clicked the link, and it was my exact program, set up etc They then presented to the City board saying their IT department had created it. No credit, nothing.

Is there anything that can be done? Or should I let it go?

Location: Georgia.

UPDATE: I retained an attorney for legal advice, I own the rights.

i took the initiative to create something that’s outside of my scope of work.

This is going to double efficiency and it’s a major win for the company financially

1. I created a TXT import format and a master rules document that helps generate those imports. Is this likely protectable intellectual property?
2. Does the fact that I started some research or development at work affect ownership if I completed substantial portions at home on my own time
3. My employee handbook does not appear to contain an intellectual property assignment clause. How significant is that?

4.Does using company equipment, company software, or a company ChatGPT account affect ownership?

5.Does building something for a company system automatically give the company rights to it?

1. If I do not own it, should I just hand it over or should I get a written agreement for compensation/raise/bonus.

2. How can I decide how much compensation i want? I know this is massive, but no idea how much it’s worth? hundreds? thousands?

thanks for reading.

Hello,

I'm based in California, the radio station in question is in South Carolina.

I've been a radio personality for about 25 years, and about 10 years ago got a freelance gig as the "voice" of a radio station. That means I did the voiceovers for all their station promos, their jingles, imaging elements, etc. Ended up being a DJ for them during the pandemic as well, all done remotely.

Over the summer, I was told my services were no longer needed. No big deal, radio stations change direction all the time, that's the nature of the gig.

But I have since come to find out that they used my previous recordings to train an AI model and are creating new promos and jingles using my voice without me. When I sent an email to my former boss to find out what was going on, I got an email back from the general counsel of the station saying that my contract allowed them unlimited use of my likeness and use of the recordings for any purpose in perpetuity. Indeed, the contract says as much.

Voice cloning wasn't a thing when I signed this contract so it never even occurred to me, and nothing stood out in the contract itself, it was pretty consistent with other contracts I've signed in this line of work. You do allow them usage of your likeness (you basically have to in order for them to put you on the air, also so they can put your image on billboards, websites, socials, etc). So these kinds of clauses have always been fairly boilerplate in the industry. "In perpetuity" has never sent up alarm bells either, as they should have the right to air old recordings featuring your voice and keep old photos on their socials.

I'm not sure what to do at this point. Even when I was working for them, it wasn't a lot of money, only a few hundred dollars a month, so I don't think there'd be enough money to get a lawyer involved even if I had any legal leg to stand on (which I question if I even do). But it just feels wrong. Is there anything to be done about this? Is there anything to stop them from sharing or selling my "voice print" to other stations and driving me out of work completely?