Simply put, any copying of someone else's work is copyright infringement unless the copying is authorized by the owner of the work or the copying falls under a "fair use" exemption.

What it's going to come down to here, however, is who owns the work.

In a case of an employer-employee relationship, the owner of the work is usually the employer.

In the case of a client-service relationship, the owner of the work needs to be specified in the contract.

Lack of a contract is a bad idea for both parties as in practical terms it will become more difficult for either side to prove what the nature of the agreement was.  Circumstantial evidence such as the fact the client paid you a sum of money and that the design appears to have been created specifically for the client may suggest, but not prove, that the nature of the agreement was that the client bought the rights to the design.  Lack of a paper contract saying otherwise would be a bad thing if you wanted to pursue this further.

Is it copyright infringement by US copyright law if someone else modifies and uses my design?
Good afternoon.

I've been trying to control an 8V H-Bridge (PMOS+NMOS) with a 4V microcontroller output signal. I thouth it would work but then i read that the PMOS source voltage had to be equal or smaller than the control voltage in the PMOS/NMOS gates. Does somebody know how to deal with this problem (without adding much more electronics)?


