do we have a case?

[ultragrl21]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? FL



My boyfriend had a verbal agreement with a guy who hired him as a flash code programmer. My boyfriend was to design and develop a series of games for this man and this man was supposed to pay him 20% of all incoming profits these games were to make. After 6 months of my BF working day and night on these games, they had a falling out upon the completion of the games. My BF told him that since they were not to be working together any longer, the man could not use his code to move further with the project unless he were to receive the promised pay. The man has now taken his code and will profit from the games with this code and is not going to pay my BF the promised 20%.

Based on all of this, there were no written agreements, but my BF can prove it is his code. The man has no coding experience and would have to lie and say he hired someone else who did it. Would my BF have a case based on the fact that this man not only stole his code but broke the verbal agreement of paying my BF the percentage of profit upon completion of the games? What can he do, if anything? This has been very devastating since he focused all his effort on these games and has nothing to show for it, except someone else trying to profit from it.

Thanks

 

[seniorjudge]

Hire a lawyer well-versed in programming.

 

[dcatz]

I kinda agree with SJ that your BF should have an Intellectual Property lawyer, if he is going to go forward. While your state allows lawyers in Small Claims, I don’t think Small Claims is the place to do it.

Small Claims could order a judgment for money that has yet to be made (judging from the post). It’s not the place to get damages and an injunction against future unauthorized use of the code. The right to license his code is what is likely to get him paid out of future profits and possibly get him a higher profile and more exposure in his profession.

(And just an aside: stop the verbal contracts! Every website designer and “script kiddie” who posts here claiming they got ripped off had a verbal contract, and it gets boring. With a bit of effort and self-teaching, it isn’t that hard anymore for a novice to do some fairly sophisticated stuff. If this is going to be a profession, treat it like a business.)