HACKER Q&A
📣 codingclaws

Is it reasonable to ask a client to pay me royalties?


As a freelancer, I built a trade show system 7 years ago and I was paid $10k for the planning and build.

My client says he loves this system and he's used it at around 50 trade shows since I built it. I'm not sure how much he charges the trade show to use it.

It has minimal bugs and requires little maintenance.

Would it be fair if I got royalties or some of the profits every time he uses it?

  👤 rabbitofdeath Accepted Answer ✓
Speaking as a freelancer myself, I would be kicking myself if I were in your shoes, but I think its a bit tasteless to go back and ask for royalties now. I'd keep this option in mind for similar systems you plan on building (or if you sell the system to someone else and make it a subscription platform.)
👤 talloo
Most consulting contracts are work for hire where you explicitly agreed to transfer and relinquish any claim to the IP.

You should check your contract to see what it says. In all likelihood, it is unreasonable to request royalties.

👤 rossdavidh
Speaking as a freelance contract developer myself:

1) normally, they would explicitly say they own the IP to what you build for them

2) it sounds like they did not in this case, but you also did not explicitly say you would charge royalties

3) I don't know what the law says, but the normal way these things work is that if they paid you up front to make it, they own it, and it would give them a lot of legitimate grounds to feel ill-used if you were to find some way to charge them royalties now

4) the goodwill and perhaps recommendations from a satisfied customer, are worth more than whatever royalties you might be able to get out of them, because you probably wouldn't have any goodwill afterwards

👤 mytailorisrich
Fair or not you agreed to be paid a lump sum for the work and you were paid so that's the end of it.
👤 brudgers
[delayed]
👤 b20000
do you have a contract in writing and did you both sign it?

you should talk to a lawyer.

you can negotiate any deal you want but you will need a contract IMHO.

👤 muzani
Nope. Don't be greedy.

I have a client who loves something I made around 7 years ago as well, and he gives me a huge chunk of the revenue now because I've been helping him maintain it and modify it to fit new clients.

He's a good friend now. He said I do have a family and he didn't feel right paying me so little when others were charging him 20x the price or so. So he offered the fairer deal.

It's not right to change your rates years later. However, since you have the high ground here, use it to propose a new deal where you add new features for a cut of the profits.

👤 altdataseller
1. It only matters what was in the original contract, it doesn’t matter what’s fair or not.

2. If you had asked for royalties in the start, you probably wouldn’t have been hired. Unless this was some problem only the top 0.1% of engineers could build, why would they hire you instead of some other person who wouldn’t ask for royalties?

3. That’s the nature of being a freelancer vs a business owner. You just built it and got guaranteed income. The owner still has to sell it and take risks to make it profitable