I am a graphic designer and specialise in creating logos. Could you please tell me the rules on copyright for the logo designs I produce, the actual ownership I have for each logo I create for clients and what kind of route I should take?
As (I presume) you are working freelance, rather than as an employee/contractor, it is likely that you are the copyright owner.
Briefly copyright legislation (1988 CDPA) states that the individual or collective that authored the work will normally be the exclusive owner of the work.
However, if a work is produced as part of employment then it will normally belong to the person/company who hired the individual.
You can therefore hold onto your rights, or - as most clients will (I expect) want to own their own logo, what often happens in is that the designer may hand over (sell) the copyright to his creation to the client. So that copyright is transferred when full payment is received.
This kind of detail should really be included in your terms of service, and if this is a new venture, it's a good idea to get a solicitor to draw up proper terms and conditions (or if you write your own terms, at least discuss the types of things to include).
is it legal under UK/EU legislation to enter into an agreement (me, as a Licensee) with a Licensor as of a certain date (say, 05-Dec-07), but have the rights to a movie being transferred to me as of two weeks ago (20-Nov-07) or can the license period only start on or after the date of the agreement? And vice versa: me, as a Licensor, transferring the rights with a back date to a Licensee?
Hi Andersan,
I'm not sure why you have posted your question in an old thread on an entirely different topic.
A licence is a type of contract. A contract is only valid once it has been agreed, so for instance you could not enforce any terms in a contract for the period before the contract came into existence. However if you as licensee, and the licensor already agree about the period prior to entering into the contract then there is no problem.
The only reason I can see for why you might wish to formalise an arrangement such as this would be to address some external issue, for instance to satisfy a court that you were a licensee at a particular time in the past. The court would not accept the contract as being valid retrospectively, but that wouldn't prevent a de facto arrangement being recognised if the licensor agreed. In simple terms it would be as if there had been a verbal contract ab initio.
Advice or comment provided here is not and does not purport to be legal advice as defined by s.12 of Legal Services Act 2007
