I am looking for an intellectual property attorney who is willing to work on a contingency payment basis, to recover royalties and other applicable compensation from individuals and organizations that have borrowed a VRML model I created and published on the Internet - with a prominently displayed "All Rights Reserved" Copyright statement - circa 1997. I have discussed the matter with a reknowned intellectual property lawyer. Very shortly after I pointed out to him that, based on his positioning in the CGI industry, he might end up in the position of suing an existing client, he stopped the conversation. I understand that there are statute of limitation considerations. My understanding that the clock often starts ticking _after the time of discovery_. I have not engaged in an extensive discovery process. I have seen the 3D model that I created about 3 dozen times, in various places on the Internet, for example on a bank website in Vancouver, Canada. Thanks !

You can find a list of lawyers with game industry/IP law experience at http://www.obscure.co.uk/directory_legal.shtml. However before diving in to "recover royalties and other applicable compensation" you need to consider the cost vs return. How much money are you actually owed? How much does a lawyer of this type charge ($200+ per hour?). Unless you have lost tens of thousands of dollars in revenue then it isn't going to be worth their while working on a contingency basis. Remember that they aren't guaranteed to recover all the money (some of the people may simply not have any cash to give, even if a court finds against them) and if they are taking on the risk of working in this way it is reasonable that the final payment amounts to a higher hourly rate than they would charge for up front payment (given that they shoulder the burden of risk).

Obviously you should go ahead and contact the lawyers but just be aware of the economics of what you are are asking for. You may find a much simpler way of dealing with this is to contact the companies directly and inform them you will take action if they don't remove the images. You could also contact their web hosts as these companies themselves become liable if they continue to host/publish materials that are in breach of copyright after they have been informed of such a breach.