i got yelled at today

[Python]

Ugh! There are some total plonkers around I've come across my fair share in my working life too.

If you have designed something then you should have copyrighted it at the very least.

Can you record their telephone calls to you? If not get one of these handheld dictaphones. I've got one which has a facility to record telephone conversations via a little earpiece. Surprising how some people back down very quickly when you tell them the conversation has been recorded and you will put the matter in the hands of a lawyer

[Duck on Wheels]

Sorry to be so confusing. For designing, I was to be paid a % of sales (according to the contract I never received!). Since the product was still in development, there were no sales as it didn't get to that point. That's why I haven't been paid. In additon to the percent, I was to be paid an hourly rate for labor, also to be paid when the vendors paid for the product.

They paid for materials, including the molds (if their check clears).

Here's a simplified version (maybe?) of my quandary:

A sculptor is commissioned by a woman to make a bronze statue of her husband. He only finishes one leg, then decides he's done. Can the woman, if she's paid for the bronze, keep the leg, even though she hasn't paid the sculptor?

I wonder if I have a leg to stand? oh, no! that's bad!

OK. So if that was the agreement, then you can't hold out on the mold until you get paid, but I think you probably CAN hold out on the mold until you get a written contract as to how they will pay you for it. You just say that what with the tone of voice they took with you and them not listening to a word you said, you can't move forward on the basis of an oral agreement. Again, posession is more than half the law, and if the manufacturer agrees with you, then YOU posess the mold.