How to Protect Your Intellectual Property Rights in Works Created By Contractors
Use written agreements to make sure you own the rights to creative work
Businesses often hire independent contractors (ICs) to do creative work, such as writing an article or book, designing a company logo, creating artwork or graphics, or developing architectural blueprints and designs. You might think that the hiring business would automatically own the work produced by the contractor -- after all, the business commissioned and paid for it, right?
In fact, however, you may not own the finished product, even if you pay an IC to create it for you. Unlike employees, whose work almost always automatically belongs to the employer, ICs are independent business people and can retain ownership rights to the work they create.
Copyright Rules
If you hire an IC to create a work of authorship -- such as written works, plays, music, art, graphics, photographs, computer software, films and videos, designs, and so on -- the finished product will be protected by copyright. The owner of a copyright has a number of rights to control how the work may be used, including the exclusive right to copy and distribute the work. If an IC retained the copyright to work you hired him or her to create, your right to use that work could be severely limited -- even though you paid for it.
A written agreement avoids this problem. For certain types of creative works (called "works for hire"), you will own the copyright as long as you and the IC execute a written work-for-hire agreement. For other types of creative works, you will have to use an assignment -- the IC's written agreement to transfer some or all of the copyright rights in the work to you.
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