Q: If someone retypes my contract, different font same words then signs, is this legal and his property, not mine?
Have determined this is not a print program in my issue. I haven't signed it yet. Misrepresentation of fact? An attp to defraud me by his creation of intellectual property?
A:
I think you are asking whether, by copying a contract you created, someone is infringing your copyright rights, and if so, how you can stop them or get them to pay you damages.
If your contract is legally considered creative enough to have copyright rights, then the verbatim copying is copyright infringement. However, it may not be protectable. Copyright law is intended to protect literary and artistic works. Data, for example, is not protected by copyright, even though it can be valuable. A contract is somewhere in the continuum between creative and data.
You can certainly send them a cease and desist letter, threaten a copyright infringement lawsuit, and ask them to stop copying and pay you damages. Whether you would actually be successful in court is unknown.
You may be asking something else - if this doesn't answer your question, please re-post.
A: I'm not totally sure what you are asking here. But it doesn't seem like there is a clear cut answer. Did you write the original contract from scratch? Did you give the contract to them for some reason? An attorney would need more information to determine how to proceed.
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