MisterCorpMan
New Member
- Jurisdiction
- Florida
Hello everyone and thank you for reviewing my situation. It is a bit complicated but I will try to be concise.
Background Info:
I have a verbal agreement with a family member where I receive 50% of sales from a product line from his company. My responsibility to the agreement involves me running production for the entire company, and working to grow the product line I receive a share of. When we started it, the owner instructed me to set up my own company and he pays my company the profit share. Additionally, I get paid on a W-2 from his company an hourly wage on anything I work on that isn't related to said product line.
The Issue:
The product line I am in charge of and receive share of has grown to be bigger than the rest of the company. The other product lines have fallen and I have put in overtime for over 5 years growing mine. The owner wants to add my product line on other platforms where I would not get a share. I would be cut out of this portion of the sales, and my department would still have to do the production for the products. So far I have been able to prevent this from happening, but it seems like it is only a matter of time before the owner changes the deal or pushes me out of the business entirely.
My Question:
I have thousands of artwork files that could allow me to start my own company. This is artwork I drew myself, at home on my personal computer, off the clock, using measurements and pictures that I took myself. I got the measurements and pictures by traveling to over 20 different cities, where I paid for all the expenses myself. I have records of the travel, notebooks full of measurements, and tens of thousands of pictures. There is no patent or copyright on the artwork. However, the company has copies of most of this artwork as well. The product line I am in charge of is based on this artwork I made, but my files are the original files.
So the big question, if I were to make a company using these artwork files, could I be sued by the company? If I were sued, would I be able to fight the case?
I would much rather things go well with the company. I hope it doesn't come to any of this. Just trying to figure out my options.
Background Info:
I have a verbal agreement with a family member where I receive 50% of sales from a product line from his company. My responsibility to the agreement involves me running production for the entire company, and working to grow the product line I receive a share of. When we started it, the owner instructed me to set up my own company and he pays my company the profit share. Additionally, I get paid on a W-2 from his company an hourly wage on anything I work on that isn't related to said product line.
The Issue:
The product line I am in charge of and receive share of has grown to be bigger than the rest of the company. The other product lines have fallen and I have put in overtime for over 5 years growing mine. The owner wants to add my product line on other platforms where I would not get a share. I would be cut out of this portion of the sales, and my department would still have to do the production for the products. So far I have been able to prevent this from happening, but it seems like it is only a matter of time before the owner changes the deal or pushes me out of the business entirely.
My Question:
I have thousands of artwork files that could allow me to start my own company. This is artwork I drew myself, at home on my personal computer, off the clock, using measurements and pictures that I took myself. I got the measurements and pictures by traveling to over 20 different cities, where I paid for all the expenses myself. I have records of the travel, notebooks full of measurements, and tens of thousands of pictures. There is no patent or copyright on the artwork. However, the company has copies of most of this artwork as well. The product line I am in charge of is based on this artwork I made, but my files are the original files.
So the big question, if I were to make a company using these artwork files, could I be sued by the company? If I were sued, would I be able to fight the case?
I would much rather things go well with the company. I hope it doesn't come to any of this. Just trying to figure out my options.
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