buying project off client?

pwd

I started work on a VBA Word addin for a client. He has told me to stop working on it for the moment, because he is not sure it will be profitable. He is trying to sell it by getting in touch with industry contacts about it, and while people are interested, he is not happy about the sort of price they are talking about.
I am working on a seperate project independently, which is nearly in beta. I intend to make this product available on the web for a small fee, and I shall market it fairly aggressively for a small product; using Google ad-words, a generous referral scheme, and mailing relevant interest groups about it (not spamming).
If my client decides he is not interested in developing the addin further, I might be interested in developing it independently, and putting it up on the web in the same way. I feel the two products would compliment each other nicely; someone coming to the site about one might want the other etc.
I would talk to the client about this before I did it. I have no idea where I would stand if I do ask him, though. His company has the copyright for the work I've already done, so would I need to buy that back from him to use it? By asking him about doing the project myself would I be asking him for a favour, or would I just be being courteous about something I don't really need permission to do? Or is it inappropriate to ask at all, and sound like I'm trying to take his business off him? He subcontracts to me at the moment, so I don't want to unintentionally make him feel threatened.
Hope this post doesn't seem frivilous. I'm fairly new in the industry and don't know how things work really in the non-technical aspects.

RicardoSmith

What does it say in your contract about copyright?

Though if hes paying you you develop something it seems pretty clear that he owns it. You will have to get him to give you the copyright. Doesn't matter if he uses it or not.

pwd

The copyright's definitely his alright. I'd barely started work on it though, and it's the idea rather than the code that I'm interested in.
He said he wants to hold off doing anything with it until the New Year. I think I'll just wait and mention it every so often. If he says he's going to abandon it I'll ask him if he minds me developing it instead.
Thanks for your response
pwd

RicardoSmith

BTW someone has sent me a possible contract for Word VBA development. Looks ok. I'll forward it to you if you PM me your email address.