Do I have the right to sell the layout if the customer refused to pay for it?

Question

Freelance

I work as a freelancer.
A citizen of Ukraine, I am temporarily in America.
The problem is the following. I made a website for the customer, no documents were signed, so to speak, from a mini-brief by e-mail and with discussions on Skype.
The customer disappeared for three weeks after the work I completed, answered questions about payment: tomorrow, soon, he was at a conference, and so on.
I was rather tired of this and decided to post the work on Behance (having warned the client 3 times in advance and received no answer) with the announcement that I would soon make a template from this layout for sale.
To which the customer immediately showed up and threatened to sue for the sale of intellectual property.
Question for the connoisseurs. Does it have the right and how to protect yourself?

Answer 1

I am not a lawyer, but like you, a designer, but I have a legal education. I don’t know how much our legislation has changed in this regard, but I don’t think that the main things have changed.
Based on my education I can say the following.
An important aspect is the legal (written) conclusion of the contract (no matter how it was done: mail, fax, etc.). If he is a legal entity, then he was obliged to conclude a fixed-term employment contract with you, as a guarantor of the legality of the transaction (one copy for you, one copy for him).
I understand that you did not conclude any contracts and the entire "agreement" is only in the correspondence "hello, I need a design."
Correspondence has no legal force. In fact, there was no legal deal, but only words, which for the court will be a very unstable basis for initiating a case.
If the correspondence indicated specific dates, the amount of payment and the fact of the transfer of the work done, then the truth is all the more on your side. You did your job, he didn't pay for it.
Of course, he can file a lawsuit, but only then he himself will regret it. Litigation, proceedings, payment of a lawyer - a very costly and nerve-wracking event.
Jurisprudence, like programming, does not understand "relative", "in words", "by word of honor", etc. concepts. She has everything in fact: there is an agreement - there is a direct offense, there is no agreement - indirect (and this is not always a fact).
You can only file a lawsuit in the territory (city) where the contract was concluded. There is no contract. Therefore, if you have the citizenship of the Russian Federation and he also has, then he, at best, can file a lawsuit in his city.
To initiate a criminal case in the United States, you need to know some aspects about you (do you have citizenship; what is the reason for your being there (legal, illegal, temporary, etc.)). BUT even so, you can only wish him "Good luck in this matter."
All his threats are the barking of a mean little dog. Having changed the content, the design idea and a couple of blocks (if you didn’t make the prototype) in places, this is no longer his intellectual property. And you can safely sell the template, most importantly, that it would not be "intellectually" similar to his idea.
Phone this "businessman" and record your conversation on audio. Only he should not know that the conversation is being recorded, then he will be more accommodating.
Be sure to say in the conversation:
- date (at the time of the call);
- he must confirm that you did the work on time (the date of the deadline for submitting the work and the amount of payment must sound mandatory) and he accepted it;
- that you have not received payment;
- if this is a startup: that you are selling not the idea of ​​his startup, but your work - design and only his.
- that you give him a week to pay for work.
If in a week the payment does not take place - feel free to post the "cleaned" template (with your content and idea). In case of further threats to the court, tell him about the audio recording. For the court, an audio recording is more weighty evidence than correspondence.
If you have any questions, then write to the mail (it is in the profile).

Answer 2

If no documents were signed, then he has no right to the site. Only if his logo is not there, because the logo can be TM and then he has the right to do so. Just change the information and pictures and sell with a clear conscience.

Answer 3

We have different systems of law with the United States - case law and continental
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romano-German_pr...
according to the continental, the essential terms of the contract, the terms and price, if they are not discussed, then there can be no claims. I won't say anything about American.
The second important condition is the form of the contract. We have it in writing.
That is, the price, terms and form of the contract are important for us. Their importance for the US law needs to be clarified

Answer 4

Perhaps knowledge of the law is not my forte, but if the customer has not paid for the product, then it is not his property, and therefore his desire to sue is nothing more than an empty threat. The only point of contention, as Nidora said earlier, may arise in the content of the site, but I doubt that posting the work on Behance - the content will remain the same ...
PS Maybe I'll answer off topic, but maybe it's not my business at all. If he began to threaten with the COURT, even from scratch, then he has some plans for the site. Putting the site on Behance will always have time, and holding the site for a while - you can count on payment.

Answer 5

Yes, let him file, it will probably be ridiculous to prove something in court.