lets say Bob designs a website for company x

Bob and the company does not sign any kind of contract and payments for the site are agreed to verbally and via invoice and the payment is in cash

Bob is given the company's logo and also some reference sites to design the site, some details are very specific and bob sits and revises these details many times untill the client is happy

Bob is also asked to add images to the site, this includes cropping, resizing, making thumbnails, etc. Bob asks the client if a gallery script would be ok for this purpose and that way the client can upload images to the necessary pages and categories.

More details are fixed by bob because company x wants different colors on text, different sizes on tumbnails etc.

Bob gets paid and hosts the company x website and makes it go live and also submits to search engines as client requested

Legal issue: Bob places the design in portfolio claiming that the site was designed by bob. This portfolio gets indexed before company x's website and company x is now threatening with lawsuit because bob added the design to his portfolio

The idea of bob putting the website in his portfolio or anything like that was never discussed with bob and company x

what can happen to bob in this situation?

IANAL, but I would think if Bob created the work, even if it was work for hire, he should be allowed to attribute his name to it. However, if he does so in a commercial manner, Company X has a legitimate claim that their trademark is being used for commercial purposes without their consent, and may have a solid case against Bob.

From a pragmatic standpoint, can Bob really afford the time, money and stress to fight this? Is it worth it to bob? Also, does Bob really believe it's in his best interests to bite the hand that's feeding him? If Bob removes the work and respectfully explains his position and apologizes, chances are there are no repercussions possible, because he complied with a takedown request properly.

Next time, Bob should make sure the issue of credit is addressed in his TOS, and he should make sure he has a contract. We've addressed this issue in our contracts for the past 10 years ourselves. This sounds like a good learning experience for Bob :)

Thanks for the quick reply, Bob in this case put the website on his website where he keeps his portfolio and where clients of bob can contact bob to design websites.

Bob does have a TOS on his website, however bob is unclear on if the client was asked to agree to this when using bob's website to register and receive invoices.

Bob knows he made a mistake and apologized to the client as soon as the issue was brought up and the website in question was instantly removed from bob's website.

And how would you define that a trademark is being used for commercial purposes? does the trademark need to be registered if company x can say this?

Bob knows he made a mistake and apologized to the client as soon as the issue was brought up and the website in question was instantly removed from bob's website.Then Bob should not be liable, unless company x can prove Bob's actions damaged them (and I can assure Bob this did not happen if he acted expediently).

If a client does not sign a contract with TOS, there's really no proof they've agreed to it. What's to say they ever saw it? And certainly there's no proof they've acknowledged it. So I don't think that's going to hold water.

Then Bob should not be liable, unless company x can prove Bob's actions damaged them (and I can assure Bob this did not happen if he acted expediently).

If a client does not sign a contract with TOS, there's really no proof they've agreed to it. What's to say they ever saw it? And certainly there's no proof they've acknowledged it. So I don't think that's going to hold water.

Bob may have caused one of company x's clients to get a bit worried/upset without knowing that this could happen of course.

Bob may have caused one of company x's clients to get a bit worried/upset without knowing that this could happen of course.Company X didn't tell him he couldn't take credit for his work prior to him doing so, and once they told him, he acted swiftly and in good faith. I don't think Bob should worry too much about company x, particularly if company x cannot prove Bob is responsible for tangible damages "on the balance of probabilities." Notwithstanding the fact that company x did not sign a contract stipulating TOS, the fact the Bob likewise did not sign a contract stipulating he could not take credit for his work, plus the fact that he does have a publicly available TOS should tip the legal scale in his favor to the point where a civil suit over damages would be considered frivolous.

Once might argue that the fault lies with faulty search engine algorithms, something about which neither Bob nor company x can control.

There are many reasons why Bob should not be held liable here, assuming we have the full story about bob's circumstances.

Again, IANAL, and in no way can this be construed as legal advice, but as a layperson with a legally-minded degree of common sense, I would think there would be little in the way of grounds for a lawsuit. Of course, that's never prevented companies from suing people anyway, which (I imagine) is a real hassle (never had to deal with this myself), but it would be an extraordinary display of douchbaggery for a judge to side with company x in this case.

thanks, this is what i thought was the case regarding bob and company x. i just wanted to hear a few opinions from people who may know these laws better.now, bob has removed the page from his website, but the page still shows up in google. bob's website also appeared on digg which also showed up in google, can these be removed somehow? would htaccess work for bob in this situation, anything else?

robots.txt

http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=164734

Best of luck to your friend Bob :)

Must be this site! http://www.bobswebdesign.com/ :D

oh yea! and this is the company http://www.companyx.com/ :)

I am not being serious of course, the above links are not related to this.

Well thank you everyone for the help!!

I am unsure as to why companyX would be upset with Bob showing up higher in the rankings than themselves, unless they are competing against each other.

What if a site linking to companyX then gets higher in the rankings, would a lawsuit be forthcoming?

Company x wants to portray that they have been in business for a long time and they dont want people to know that they just hired bob a few weeks ago to get the website up.

Honestly i don't see why it is an issue and i guess they dont want any people linking to their site :) no one would want to if they are risking a lawsuit over it haha

Bottom line is, if companyX is NOT a web design company then why should they care. companyX is getting FREE advertising and if the web designer is able to get a better rank than companyX ... How this would relate to trademark issues is beyond me. Honestly I will "Thank" the web designer for putting my site up in their portfolio , marketing is marketing. I say "sorry for what" ? Mr client, I did your design, I put your site in my portfolio and now you come back to with with and threaten to sue? give me a break Mr. Client.. Tell them to go sue McDonalds for making the coffee too hot - Gezzzzz ( I know this is a hypothetical example ) but none the less - I am tired of people and the silly little Law Suits over petty issues. Ok off soap box.

Peace...

Company x wants to portray that they have been in business for a long time and they dont want people to know that they just hired bob a few weeks ago to get the website up.

Honestly i don't see why it is an issue and i guess they dont want any people linking to their site :) no one would want to if they are risking a lawsuit over it haha

There is a simple answer to that, place in the Web Site - Since 1899 or what ever ;)

All business's get face lifts to their web sites, if they cant understand that, they would be ignorant fools.

Anyway... this is not even a real example - or was it?

Cheers,

Dave