Need advice - Legal/Business Issue

Hi everyone. I am in conflict with another person. Here is what happened

I was approached by this person because he wanted to purchase my games. After sorting out the payment details, I agreed to do the deal. He noted that the payment was for the transfer of all the game rights. I gave consent to him to send the payment to me, and he did. A little while later I was having second thoughts about selling the game rights. I refunded the payment and told him that the deal was off. Now he is saying that I consented to the payment, and therefore the rights are actually transferred. Who is wrong? Don’t be afraid to tell me I’m wrong, because it would be helpful to know why. And vice versa.

I realize that you guys probably aren’t lawyers but advice is appreciated. I’ll probably end up talking to a lawyer if it comes down to it but I would like some unbiased opinions. Thanks!

As you said, I’m not a lawyer but it seems like you are in the wrong because you already accepted the money.

I agree as stated above. You agreed to and completed the terms of the purchase by taking the money.

You have to be careful in selling any IP.

I’m no lawyer, but I think the rights are / should belong to the purchaser.

If you sold someone a car, would it be ok to go back afterwards and say ‘whoops, changed my mind, here’s your money back now give me my car’?

In some transactions there’s a ‘cooling down’ period or similar to give both parties an opportunity to do just that. If you didn’t have one of those then I think that doing anything other than sticking to the deal as it is written is pretty dodgy.

Everyone here has pretty much nailed it. It’s one thing that you guys came to an agreement, and entirely another that you accepted his payment (even if you refunded it). Even if the contract was completely verbal, it has already been technically executed by him providing you with payment. He may decide to be a nice guy and allow you to renege on the contract without consequence, but if he wants it to stand there’s little you can do about it. It’s not worth fighting in my opinion. Depending on where you are located, if he pursues legal remedies you may also find yourself liable for his legal fees.

Hmm you can’t take and give back and change your mind…
Contract is the contract, it is a little bit weird O_o…

You should NOT be talking about these affairs openly in a forum. That is a very very dumb thing to do and is completely admissible in court. But it sounds like you are in the wrong if there is some sort of record of the consent. That said, what you just said in the OP would most certainly hurt your chances at fighting it in court. Also, this person doesn’t sound very bright if he, himself, didn’t draft up some sort of contract.

You should get a lawyer to draft a contract, and both of you honour it.

From a legal point of view, there is no cooling down period in most countries as there is no salesmen and this is not a high-pressure or direct-sales talk.

Suggest you get a lawyer, call-up your customer and both of you talk with a lawyer to mediate the outcome, and DO NOT post any more things to the forum. If you continue posting, you may affect the outcome.

In any case, with no contract, you should just ask for the customer the money again and honour the sale. If the customer disagrees about paying, you should consider a lesser price. If he does not want to pay anything, you may have a tough time because it was you, not the buyer who changed the contract without the buyer’s consent.

I would not be surprised the customer is looking at this too -.-