Q: Publishing Rights

I'm not a copyright or intellectual property rights attorney, but let me see if I get this straight.

You and your wife wrote a children's book. You formed a company to publish said children's book. You distribute said children's book through iTunes.

You as both publisher and authors own the rights to this children's book. There is no other agency through which you have signed away any rights, correct?

Thus, even if you dissolve the publishing company, you still own the rights to your book. You never officially assigned any rights to your work to any other agency. Thus, it's yours free and clear to do with as you will and always has been. I'd definitely check with an intellectual property rights attorney to see if there's going to be any problem withdrawing the work from iTunes (if you do), but there's definitely, in my eyes, no problem whatsoever between the writers and the publishers of this work as they are one and the same.

Just as an example, I self-publish on both Kindle and Smashwords. At any time of my choosing I can withdraw a work, modify a work, change the covers for a work, or fiddle with a work as I see fit since I am both my own publisher and the creator of my work. I don't need some other intermediary's permission to do anything to my work since I have never assigned any rights to any other legal entity with the exception of those I assigned to Smashwords and Amazon as part of the process of distributing my work through them.

As I said, check with an intellectual property rights attorney as I am not one and do not play one on TV, but I don't believe you have any problem here.

Question:

1. Is your company a corporation or sole-propreitorship/partnership?

2. Under the copyright information, is it copyrighted under the company name: TITLE is (c) 2011 to COMPANY NAME. or is it TITLE is (c) to PERSONAL NAME?

I'm not an expert, but it it was under personal name, then likely your company served for distribution purposes.

You need to ask your attorney when he/she dissolves your corporation, assuming it is being dissolved after the assets are sold.

This is not a simple question that can be answered in a public forum, or by reference to a government website. The answer will likely be dependent on local (state) law, at least in part, dealing with the procedure for dissolving a corporation.

JD, not giving individual legal advice, just general information, and the recommendation that you consult a local licensed attorney experienced in corporate law.