My Client wants to take credits of my enveto Item.

Envato Authors Code Authors
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Hello everyone,
before a month I have bid on a upwork project which was related to my current plugin given below upwork project

the project was from my local so thought to work on it outside upwork and that was the mistake i didn’t for my self i worked on many other local projects before and did very successfully but for that project it took my almost 20 days to add new features that features are already in my mind by time to time but the project attract me because it was related to my work and i was getting the opportunity to update my plugin as you can check even the name of my plugin represent that i was making it a complete sms solution for woocommerce. https://codecanyon.net/item/woocommerce-advance-smstext-notification/20062576 deal got final in approx 25000 PKR he asked me that this work is for his customer not for him self or he is trying to become my partner in the plugin today i just provided him files and the demo and he said that this is my work and i would complain that i took his idea for my plugin update and so on and he did all this thing after getting files from me with first demo and said i will change text and so on and than i said i didn’t offered you that to resale it on enveto the project attracket me so that is why i took it and did it as fast that i got project + i will update my plugin i would like to know what the the legal way of it and all my creativity even a single time client ask me he just ask me once and that was very cheap instead of giving me my pay he want to su me that i took his idea i did all my work as a project and update i believe that anyone here in wouldn’t enveto will sale his plugin and credits for any custom job isn’t it ? please help and let me know he didn’t pay me that is the first thing and second thing he got all my project and the work i did

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https://www.wcvendors.com/help/topic/twilio-sms-notification-to-vendor-about-order/#post-66779

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  1. You scammed Upwork out of their cut and now you’re getting scammed by the client… what goes around comes around. That was your main mistake. If you’d worked through Upwork then you would have had a documented contract, funds would have been placed in escrow before work commenced, and you would have had recourse if anything went wrong… including a structured dispute process and documented evidence of the work you’ve provided.

  2. Forget about ever getting paid. If he wants to pay you, then he will pay you. If he doesn’t then he won’t. You could pursue this through legal channels, but the time, cost and hassle of doing so would barely be worth it.

  3. Forget about him suing you. In my experience, for every 100 times somebody says “I’m going to sue you”… that may result in 1 (or considerably less) instance of somebody actually being sued.

  4. Keep all your files and all your communications, just in case something does come of it. It’s not 100% clear from your post exactly what happened, but best to hold onto everything to be on the safe side.

  5. If he’s not paid you, then he owns nothing. Feel free to use a DMCA if he starts selling your work or you come across it being used somewhere.

  6. This would have been problematic even if you’d played by the rules. If you had worked through Upwork, had a contract in place, and the dude ended up paying you… the standard agreement is work for hire, and that the client owns everything that you create. If the client tells you additions that he wants to your plugin, and you create those additions, the client essentially owns those additions and the work that you have created, so it would put you in a difficult position if you wanted to update your plugin using that work. In such instances, it’s important to have a firm agreement what you can and can’t do with the work before the project starts.

  7. Bottom line… you screwed up. There’s not much you can do about that now with regards to getting paid. Just document everything to be on the safe side, and keep an eye on what he’s doing with the work, as if he’s not paid then he has no ownership of the work you’ve completed.

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Any service that provides the ability to document everything and keeps you safe behind a Terms of Service Agreement ( if you of course follow it ) should not be broken, even if they have a larger share. @SpaceStockFootage put things perfectly! Never try to run over the TOS of a service that are there to protect you, because you just found out first hand what happens when that TOS is not behind you. Cheers and good luck! I don’t believe you will be sued over 250 USD, but it’s best to try and avoid things like these in the future, because as my colleague said, maybe 1 out of 100 people actually follow up and sue you, but the more you stack against that numbers the higher the chances of getting sued are. Just follow the Terms of Services and you’ll be good!

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100% agree with @SpaceStockFootage and @Enabled - shake it off and just be happy to be rid of this client.

The silver lining in this situation is that money never changed hands and it doesn’t sound like a proper contract was in place, so you owe this client nothing. And (though I am not a lawyer by any means) I’m fairly positive you can’t be sued just because someone else claims an idea was theirs. So long as the other party doesn’t hold a patent or trademark and you didn’t steal any of their original work (in this case code) you should be okay.

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thanks all for your help it give me a lesson that i will never every work outside upwork from now i just lost the work i did and payment that he didn’t pay me and i agree that i made a mistake to work outside upwork