Work For Hire Agreement

Determining Copyright Ownership From Day One

When your employees create content for your business during the scope of their employment, your business automatically owns the rights to this content. For example, if one of your employees is responsible for sending out press releases, your business owns the rights to those press releases. But what if you hire a freelancer or independent contractor (who is not an employee) to write these press releases on a case-by-case basis, or even another business? Since these outside workers are not employees of your business, this “default setting” of copyright ownership is no longer the case—your business doesn’t automatically own the resulting commissioned materials: the outside worker does.

How the Agreement Works

With a Work For Hire Agreement in place at the time these projects are commissioned, it’s clear from the get-go that your business is to be the legal copyright owner and not the author or artist hired to create the material. [Note: It’s important for the Agreement to be made at the time the project is commissioned. If that time has passed, a Copyright Assignment Form may be more appropriate.]

When should you use one? Here are just a few different materials businesses commonly hire outside workers to create, where without a Work For Hire your business may not legally own the materials:

• Website content
• Website design
• Articles or blog posts
• Photographs
• Corporate logo

Your Customizable Work For Hire Agreement

Click&Inc provides completely editable Agreements, along with detailed instructions and a professional look. Just fill in the blanks to complete the form, or add or change anything else you’d like. Secure your business’s copyright ownership today!

Remember: If an employee creates something for the business during the scope of employment, the business owns it. If the business commissions a project from an independent contractor, without a Work For Hire or other formal agreement, the contractor owns it.