Former Client is Trying to Sell Software That Looks Like Mine

I'm in Illinois and the client is in Nevada.

A prospective customer of mine has indicated that another company is selling software that looks almost identical to mine. After looking further into it I am quite sure they are selling the software that I wrote, but I can't prove it yet (if they make a sale I'll probably be able to prove it). I have a contract that they signed which specifically prohibits selling or otherwise distributing the software outside of their company. As it turns out they are charging five times what I'm selling for so it comes to little surprise they haven't made a sale yet.

Since they haven't made a sale there doesn't seem to be much I can do except ask them to stop, and if I do that they'll just cover their tracks better and continue. Right now I want to quietly use them to my advantage. Since their prices are so much higher than mine, I've raised my prices without issue ($799 compared to nothing is expensive, but $1599 compared to $4000 is cheap). If they do start making sales I want to go after them though, will doing this hurt my chances of getting money from them? My actual endgame with legal threats is to get them to buy me out; I'm barely in that software market anymore but they don't know that.

so, buy a copy of their software using a third party so they are not aware it is you and see if it is in fact your software.

I don't have enough money to buy it right now, I'm a poor engineering student. Furthermore if it's in fact not my software I'm out $4,000. Better to wait until they make a sale then talk to the recipient, in my experience most clients would be interested to know if they got ripped off (I'd also be OK with them continuing to use the software since they didn't know).

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Quoting cprogrammer

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I don't have enough money to buy it right now, I'm a poor engineering student. Furthermore if it's in fact not my software I'm out $4,000. Better to wait until they make a sale then talk to the recipient, in my experience most clients would be interested to know if they got ripped off (I'd also be OK with them continuing to use the software since they didn't know).

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how would you find out who purchased a copy from them?

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Quoting jk

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how would you find out who purchased a copy from them?

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I'd inquire about buying under a false name and ask for references. Chances are he'd put it on his portfolio too.

so give it a shot.


by chance did you register you work with the US copyright office?

If not, your only recourse may be the contractual limitation and based on that, you would only be able to stop the sales, expect whatever the contract states in case of their breach, and possibly lost income of the sale.

If your work is registered, then you could utilize the copyright laws to seek actions and compensation.

check out the actual and statutory damages section:

http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap5.html

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Quoting jk

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so give it a shot.


by chance did you register you work with the US copyright office?

If not, your only recourse may be the contractual limitation and based on that, you would only be able to stop the sales, expect whatever the contract states in case of their breach, and possibly lost income of the sale.

If your work is registered, then you could utilize the copyright laws to seek actions and compensation.

check out the actual and statutory damages section:

http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap5.html

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Thanks for the info. I don't have it copyrighted and the contract doesn't set out specific penalties if breached for this (a mistake I won't make again). Even if I could only go after lost income it may be enough to get what I want. This is assuming he ever makes a sale when I'm out there selling the same thing at less than half price.

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I should also add that this product was (and is still as far as he knows) a lead into consulting services. So if I was still consulting lost income would be complex since my price was based on the fact that most come back and hire me for more.

that's where statutory damages come in.


if you are going to be in a business where copyrights are involved, here is a bit of info:

http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/

He is free to register his work at any time before starting his federal lawsuit. Yes, he loses some statutory protections that way, but all is not lost now.

The key is to determine if this is actually a copy of the software or just an independently developed software that works similarly to the original. Copyright (and even most licensing) will not prevent the latter.

True, he can still register it. Didn't mean to imply otherwise if my post comes across that way. Thanks for pointing that out though as I did fail to include it.