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>>You need to take a look at what your contracts say about this case... is the code owned by you or your client?
>
>The contract is purely a user license contract and the code and the IP belong to our company. i know of Refox and use it for our projects, but unfortunately it seems to have been either by-passed or the code accessed another way (a previous developer of ours now works for the client involved).
>So as you can see i am very eager to put a stop to this through a legal means as i see that it is the only way under the current circumstances. Any idea where i might start to look for information that outlines the steps involved to prove the software is ours?
>
>Jordan

One thing I would STRONGLY suggest before jumping straight to a lawsuit with your biggest client is to ask for a meeting with them and attempt to work this out. You may be able to work out a deal where they will pay you for the code.

I would be very leery to jump into a fight with a government entity like this - it could take forever to settle, might cost an enourmous amount of money, give you a bad reputation, and cause you to lose a customer (if not several).

This also might not be the "fault" of the customer - it could be that your former employee took some technology with him when he left.