Is this my concept, or theirs?

[BeautyBusiness]

I make custom 3D prints. A customer asked me to make a product, and I charged her a fee for the design. We didn't have an exact image in mind to begin with, but as I started making things, we were getting nowhere.
My husband had the idea of putting the bottle on the nail tip stand. I made it, showed her, and she liked it. When I designed the bases, she then saw another company's bases and wanted me to make them like theirs.
We talked about the product, and I told her that I wouldn't sell her product to anybody else. Similar, but not the same.
Another customer has recently asked me to make a similar one for her. Their bottle is their brand's shape. My original customer is now saying that I'm not allowed to sell these products because she owns the concept. My question is, does she? No contracts were ever exchanged, and the fee was for me to make her product, and not sell her shaped bottle to anybody else, which I didn't. They're not even the same colour.
I think she assumed that I wouldn't make anything like that for another brand and that I would only sell to individual nail technicians.
All of the designs have come from our end, and she's only agreed to them or asked for tweaks (of a different product)

 

[fisicx]

You did the design which means the intellectual property (IP) is yours. They just have permission to use your design.

Tell them to poke it where the sun don't shine.

An analogy:

You create a 3D image of their hand. They can do whatever they like with the 'their' hand. You agree not to sell that specific 3D image to anyone else. But you can do a 3D image of somebody else's hand.

 

[BeautyBusiness]

Thank you so much.

 

[BeautyBusiness]

Sorry, even if their specific design, which I didn't use on anybody else, is exclusive to them?
The polish bottle on the stand is their shape, but I didn't use that in the other product.

 

[fisicx]

Sorry, even if their specific design, which I didn't use on anybody else, is exclusive to them?
The polish bottle on the stand is their shape, but I didn't use that in the other product.

If you did the design the concept belongs to you. They just have permission to use your design.

 

[David Griffiths]

If you did the design the concept belongs to you. They just have permission to use your design.

I'm not a lawyer but the OP said that the customer paid her for the design. That could well mean that the design belongs to the customer. It might not be straightforward.

 

[BeautyBusiness]

I'm not a lawyer but the OP said that the customer paid her for the design. That could well mean that the design belongs to the customer. It might not be straightforward.

Thanks. I've spoken to a solicitor now, and he said that as there's no written contract, then the design is mine. She paid for me to design it, and there weren't any written agreements.

 

[fisicx]

I'm not a lawyer but the OP said that the customer paid her for the design. That could well mean that the design belongs to the customer. It might not be straightforward.

IP belongs to the originator unless there is a written agreement to transfer. But even then the originator is recognised as such.

 

[prophet01]

This, from the patent firm I used:

Intellectual Property Ownership in the UK

Designs:​

The law of ownership for designs is similar to copyright – an author is usually the owner of a design, unless the design was created by an employee in the course of employment, in which case the design belongs to the employer.​

​

In addition, for commissioned designs created before 1st October 2014, in the absence of an agreement to the contrary, the commissioned design shall belong to the person commissioning the work.​

​

Alternatively, for commissioned designs created on or after 1st October 2014, in the absence of an agreement to the contrary, the commissioned designs shall belong to the designer or, if relevant, to their employer. This change of law was introduced by the Intellectual Property Act, which came into force on 1st October 2014.​