Who owns my art?

[arcanemachinist]

What is the name of your state? Virginia

There is an independant contractor agreement a previous employer has that appears to be signed by me. The problem is, I never remember signing the agreement. I am absolutely 100% possitive that I didn't sign it because it contains terms underneath the signature lines that I would never have agreed to as a professional. The terms state that I signed over exclusivity rights to the works I created while I was in college, before I joined the company, to the company. These terms appear to have my name hand writen (not signed and not initialed by either party, mind you) and are undated. The terms do not list any works specifically, rather, it claims that ALL of my works were signed over and for no payment.

To make matters worse, they have removed all of my signatures and dates from all the pieces they are selling and have watermarked the works with their business name. They also have the works of others up for sale by artists I know personally whom when asked have told me they haven't given permission to them to sell or to even use theire art.

To further my fury, the company is actually selling prints of my work. Can I seek damages if this addendum is unenforceable, making my art mine still?

It's not so much the fact that they are being sold (still very much upsetting), but I'm more afraid they are selling the rights to characters that I have created from scratch and which I plan to use in stories later on in my career.

The reason I left the company was because the owner started asking me about creating contracts that mirror unwitnessed verbal agreements and signing the involved parties names to them (mainly private investors). This violated my sense of ethics and decided that the company wasn't the right place for me. He also asked another person that was with the company (who left shortly after my leaving) the same things.

Is my artwork still mine or do they own it now for some god aweful reason?

 

[divgradcurl]

What is the name of your state? Virginia

There is an independant contractor agreement a previous employer has that appears to be signed by me. The problem is, I never remember signing the agreement. I am absolutely 100% possitive that I didn't sign it because it contains terms underneath the signature lines that I would never have agreed to as a professional. The terms state that I signed over exclusivity rights to the works I created while I was in college, before I joined the company, to the company. These terms appear to have my name hand writen (not signed and not initialed by either party, mind you) and are undated. The terms do not list any works specifically, rather, it claims that ALL of my works were signed over and for no payment.

To make matters worse, they have removed all of my signatures and dates from all the pieces they are selling and have watermarked the works with their business name. They also have the works of others up for sale by artists I know personally whom when asked have told me they haven't given permission to them to sell or to even use theire art.

To further my fury, the company is actually selling prints of my work. Can I seek damages if this addendum is unenforceable, making my art mine still?

It's not so much the fact that they are being sold (still very much upsetting), but I'm more afraid they are selling the rights to characters that I have created from scratch and which I plan to use in stories later on in my career.

The reason I left the company was because the owner started asking me about creating contracts that mirror unwitnessed verbal agreements and signing the involved parties names to them (mainly private investors). This violated my sense of ethics and decided that the company wasn't the right place for me. He also asked another person that was with the company (who left shortly after my leaving) the same things.

Is my artwork still mine or do they own it now for some god aweful reason?

Your best bet at this point is take all f your contracts and paperwork down to a local attorney with experience in copyright law, who can review all of the facts of your situation and advise you accordingly. As you can probably guess, if the contract is invalid, you own the copyrights; if the contract is valid, they probably do -- but that's all we can speculate about here. You need to see a lawyer, who can advise you based on a review of the actual documents.