My understanding is if it’s not properly patented then it’s not protected in anyway.
Your understanding is incorrect. Patents are a “negative right” they allow the patent holder to prevent others from practicing the invention. It does not give the patent holder the right to practice the invention.
Copyright, however, can serve to prevent others from making copies of “an idea in a fixed medium”. A valid copyright means the owner(s) can prevent others from copying or making any derivative work.
Sure you can say “you designed” it but that means SFA. The monies spent in court is the factor in deciding who owns the “design”.
Not always.
Copyright infringement under the Copyright Act of 1976 involves the nonpermissive replication, distribution, performance, display, or creation of derivative works of copyrighted material.
Section 504(b) of that act allows actual damages due to infringement (determined by the loss in the copyright’s fair market value) and any profits that the infringer made that are attributable to the infringement and are not considered in computing actual damages. This means actual damages (loss in the value of the copyright) AND the copyright infringers profits, but not double recovery.
A copyright owner is only required to present proof of the infringer’s gross revenue to satisfy the burden of proof.
But statutory damages are also available, $750 to $30,000 per infringement. These, however, typically require registration of the copyright.
Typically one side or the other taps out (settles) due to the legal expenses that would otherwise occur, but you never know. I went to war with AT&T over trademark for years, and won. I went to war with LEGO over patents, and won, and I’m a little guy compared to these behemoths.
Under 17 U.S.C. § 201(b), employers or commissioning parties become the copyright owners of works made for hire, unless otherwise agreed in writing, and I think this would be the fundamental issue. Can the machine shop owner produce a contract that shows they are the copyright holder? Can they produce written records that show they had the original idea, and that Joey didn’t help develop it?
From what’s been said here, at best they could have a co-authorship claim. But this puts the machine shop owner at risk, because under U.S. law, co-authors (joint authors) of a copyrighted work equally own the entire work, sharing undivided, 50/50 rights by default, regardless of contribution size. Each co-author can independently use, license, and transfer the work without others' consent, but they must account to co-authors for profits.
Like you, I’m not a lawyer but I’ve seen enough of it over the past 37 years, and I’ve seen people lose lots of money saying they “designed” it.
As above, unless the machine shop owner can prove they had the original idea, and Joey had zero input, or they have a contract assigning all rights in the design (product), at best they are a co-author. (It’s different outside the USA.)
