Hi playboy-bunnie,
I'm not surprised you didn't find an answer to your problem elsewhere on the forums because it is quite a tricky one. Just to make it clear to others, here's what the Copyright Designs and Patents Act (CDPA) 1988 section 11 says: (I've highlighted the relevant bit)
Section 11: First ownership of copyright.
11.-(1) The author of a work is the first owner of any copyright in it, subject to the following provisions.
(2) Where a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work, or a film, is made by an employee in the course of his employment, his employer is the first owner of any copyright in the work subject to any agreement to the contrary.
(3) This section does not apply to Crown copyright or Parliamentary copyright (see sections 163 and 165) or to copyright which subsists by virtue of section 168 (copyright of certain international organisations).
I would like to tackle the easy bit first. When a company (whether it is incorporated or not) ceases trading its assets, which can be both physical (desks, chairs, company cars etc) and intangible (goodwill, intellectual property etc) still belong to someone. Often these things will be sold off to pay any creditors. So,
if copyright in the work you did during your internship belonged to the web design company, you would need a document signed by the owner which assigned the copyright to you, before you could claim ownership. Section 90 of the CDPA lays out how copyright may be permanently transferred:
90. Assignment
(1) Copyright is transmissible by assignment, by testamentary disposition or by operation of law, as personal or moveable property.
(2) An assignment or other transmission of copyright may be partial, that is, limited so as to apply-
(a) to one or more, but not all, of the things the copyright owner has the exclusive right to do;
(b) to part, but not the whole, of the period for which the copyright is to subsist.
(3) An assignment of copyright is not effective unless it is in writing signed by or on behalf of the assignor.
So copyright assignment must be in writing unless it is transferred by the law (as in the case of section 11 quoted above), or by the normal laws of inheritance. From what you have said, none of these three things have been used to transfer copyright to you. Obviously I cannot comment on the situation concerning the other ex-worker who is now using some of the company's designs. He may have a licence to use this material, or it may be as you suggest that he has just appropriated it without regard to the legalities.
The key question - who was your employer or indeed were you self-employed? - is probably more to do with employment law than copyright law. All the CDPA says on the subject can be found in Section 178 Minor Definitions which says:
"employed", "employee", "employer" and "employment" refer to employment under a contract of service or of apprenticeship;
Thanks for including the relevant part of your contract* with the University. Whilst that is pretty clear where you stand with the University over copyright, it is less helpful in the situation you describe. As you were an intern I assume that there were no wages or salary involved. Was anyone paying your NI contributions? You mention that there was a fixed-term contract. Is this the same document that you quoted from over copyright? If there was a separate written contract detailing your working relationship with the web company, this is likely to hold the key to this problem. Alternatively if there was some sort of agency agreement between the university and the company, that would also help to clarify things. If you were to all intents and purposes an agency worker and there was no specific agreement between you and the web company over intellectual property ownership, I think it would be fair to assume that Section 11(2) would not apply in your case. As employment law is not my speciality I would be loath to go into specifics on this aspect. I would suggest talking to the University staff to see how they understand your employment situation.
If it appears that the University was your employer, and the internship was arranged to further your professional development as seems likely, then I think the statement "The copyright in any work or design compiled, edited or otherwise brought into existence by you as a scholarly work produced in furtherance of your professional career shall belong to you" would apply to the work you undertook whilst at the web design company.
If you were not employed by either the web company or the university (for instance if you were being treated as if you were self-employed, or in full time education) then you would undoubtedly be the first owner of the copyright in your work.
* Incidently I suspect there is a typo in the first line under the heading Copyright, which should read
"Subject to the following provisions, the University and you acknowledge section 11 and 215 ... ". (Section 215 deals with the owneship of design right in a similar way to section 11.)
