A senior partner told me 'just file the copyright renewals yourself' and I should've ignored that advice

About 8 months ago, a partner at our firm said I could handle three copyright renewals on my own to save the client $400 in fees. I went ahead and did it, missed a renewal deadline by 2 days on one of them. Client lost the rights to a small portfolio of images, worth maybe $3k annually. Now I always push back and say let the specialists handle it. Has anyone else been burned by following advice from someone who wasn't in the trenches on the actual work?

2 comments

2 Comments

rubyk861d ago

I saw a similar story on a legal forum a few months back where a paralegal tried to do her own renewals on a small photo collection and lost the rights to a whole batch of stock images used in ads. The client was a local restaurant chain and it cost them way more than $3k to redo their menu boards and website. It's wild how one little missed deadline can snowball like that... I always let the pros handle anything with deadlines attached now.

the_adam1d agoMost Upvoted

Read something similar over on r/photography the other day actually. Someone let their copyright lapse on a whole series of wedding photos they'd sold to a venue. The venue ended up having to pull down all their online galleries and reprint their brochures. Crazy how fast things fall apart when you miss a date.