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Does my design remain my property or does it go public once I submit it to this forum for printing

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Hi Tass,

Short answer:

Hubs are not allowed to make any more copies of a design than what the client requested. This restriction does not apply if the design is publicly available. In your case, it is still your design.

Longer addendum:

You can release your design under several licenses, this way you will still receive credit for your design. You can do this with a patent or by releasing it with an open source license (these can also restrict people from making use of your model for profit, for example. )
A very helpful website for you is http://choosealicense.com/

As they explain:

"You’re under no obligation to choose a license and it’s your right not to include one with your code or project. But please note that opting out of open source licenses doesn’t mean you’re opting out of copyright law.

You’ll have to check with your own legal counsel regarding your particular project, but generally speaking, the absence of a license means that default copyright laws apply. This means that you retain all rights to your source code and that nobody else may reproduce, distribute, or create derivative works from your work."

So if at any point you wish to release your design, it would be practical to know which license you want to use.

Cheers,

Aaron

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Great info Aaron. I just wanted to add that NDAs (non-disclosure agreements) are a great option in these situations. I deal mostly with prototypes so many of clients are justifiably paranoid/protective of their work. You can easily get a template off the web and fill in the blanks. Probably want to get signatures notarized locally and you are good to go.
-Jesse

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