When Co-Author Credit is Removed

Dear Rich: Authors A, B, C, and D are researchers who together write Article X that is published in Journal Y. Authors A, B, C, v D also write a report for Foundation Z, which funded their research. The report goes unpublished except for on the Internet. Later, Authors A and B decide to coauthor a book. Authors C and D will not author anything in the book. Authors A and B have permission from Journal Y (the copyright holder of Article X) to reprint that article in the book. Authors A and B would also like to reprint or adapt parts of the report written for Foundation Z. Do Authors A and B need to obtain permission from Authors C and D to reprint or adapt sections of the report written for Foundation Z? Is it considered plagiarism that Authors C and D are coauthors of Article X but not of the reprinted version in Authors A and B's book? If so, is there a cause of action that Authors C and D can pursue against Authors A and B? Wow, that's a lot of ABC's! We’re assuming that the researchers were independent contractors, not employees of the foundation and that you all assigned your interests in the article to the journal and the foundation.
Okay so far ... If this is accurate, and the journal and foundation own their respective copyrights, you don’t need permission from Authors C and D to reprint or adapt portions. Authors C and D no longer have copyright in those works. If, however, the co-authors own the copyright in the foundation report, then the co-authors are co-owners. In that case, you can still reproduce the report without the consent of C and D, assuming you're not contractually bound otherwise, and provided that you share your book revenues with C and D based on the value of their contribution. (Yes, we know ... good luck figuring that out!)
Credits. Although copyright law does not require attribution, Authors C and D may still have a legal claim if their name is removed from the article, particularly if C and D can prove that removing their names caused injury to C and D's  professional reputation or that you had an agreement to share credit. This is important if you work in a field where credit for publications is crucial for job advancement. You can avoid the potential hassle by crediting the article and the report in the same way as they were originally published (By the way, most copyright experts agree that making a work publicly available on the Internet is a form of publication.)

My Partner Patented My Idea!

Dear Rich: While I was in school, I came up with an idea for a product that allows you to get your car back from valet with a text message. I wrote a business proposal and found a partner. My partner started the company and we developed the product. I never signed any employment agreement, we never did any sort of paperwork for ownership of the company (he was a family friend), and he applied for the patent with his name and the company name. All was fine until a disagreement between us led to me leaving the company. Now he refuses to acknowledge my claim to the company (though I have him acknowledging my co-ownership in an email), and his name is on the patent for my idea. Obviously I learned my lesson about getting everything in writing, but do I have any recourse as far as challenging or becoming a co-owner? We're not clear whether your patent was granted or whether you're referring to an application still in progress. We're also not patent lawyers so we can't comment on the novelty or nonobviousness of your text message/valet system. But few applications fly through the patent process, so if a patent has not been granted (and we're not referring to provisional patent applications), we'd suggest that you search the USPTO website to determine where, in the patent food chain, the patent is currently located and to verify that you are not listed as a co-inventor. You need to also assess accurately what your contribution was. The more specific and detailed your contribution the stronger your position. But if all you provided was the one-sentence idea as in the question, above, the weaker your claim to invention co-ownership.
Can you afford the fight? Assuming you have a strong claim, you're going to need a patent attorney in order to validate your claim to co-ownership. (You'll need a patent attorney because you will need someone familiar with the the patent process and with claims such as patent fraud.) It's possible (though not likely), that if you have a really strong financial claim, you can find an attorney who will work on contingency. Before you proceed, consider the financial outcome. You don't want to spend more money on lawyers than you'll earn from your patent.

Needs App Co-Owner Agreement

Dear Rich: I am starting up a new business that designs educational apps. We have designed our first three apps and are close to submitting our first one to Apple and Android stores. Our designer is my business partner's husband and has worked for free so far. We want to write two contracts: One contract will designate how the monies will be distributed: we would like to use the following percentages: 30/30/30/10 for designer/partner/self/business account for the first two apps. Then if the first two apps earn enough, we would switch to paying the designer a flat fee as we have done for the programmers. We would also like to write up a contract that stipulates who owns the intellectual property rights to the images and what each party can do with them. Our thinking is that we will all own the rights, however, my company will own the sole rights in that we can decide what the designer may do with the images -- for example, he can use them for promotional purposes only for his business. We can use them in the app, our website and any other way we'd like. Is there a standard form for such types of contracts that we could use to modify for us? We're not sure if there is a "standard" form for the arrangements you describe but you could probably modify an innovation joint ownership agreement (assuming you will all be co-owners) -- for example, something similar to the  joint ownership agreement included in our licensing book. You could also draft something by yourself - something that simply sets out what you describe above -- for example that you are all co-owners and that you have different rights when it comes to the images contained in the app. You need to be specific that this agreement applies to the two apps, only, and you need to be clear about who owns the underlying images, and how you will divide and distribute the money (the app stores won't do that for you). As for the flat fee for future apps, you wouldn't need to include that in your current agreement. That could be the subject of a separate agreement. Also, as long as we're hyping our stuff, you might find it helpful to check out our O'Reilly guide for app developers.

Siblings Are Copyright Co-Owners

children of copyright owner

Dear Rich: If two siblings inherit the copyrights to a work written by one of their parents, can each sibling independently grant permission to use the copyrighted material without asking the other, or must both agree? They have not established a partnership or any other legal entity to handle the copyrights. As co-owners of the copyright, the siblings have a legal status known as “tenants in common.” Each sibling has an independent right to use or nonexclusively license the work—provided that the sibling accounts to the other sibling (co‑owner) for any profits.  However, all co-owners must consent to an assignment of the work (a permanent transfer of copyright ownership) or to an exclusive license (an agreement granting rights solely to one person). For example, if a publishing company wanted an exclusive license to sell the work (that is, the publisher is the only company that can sell the work), the publisher must obtain the consent of both owners. In addition, someone must obtain the consent of both siblings if the siblings have an agreement requiring joint consent. Finally, outside the U.S. some countries refuse to recognize even nonexclusive licenses when granted by one co-owner (so that may put a dent on a worldwide license).