Breach of someone else’s copyright – Ownership of your marketing designs

Thursday, September 29, 2011

In order to avoid such issues the following steps should be used as a guide line.

In most instances companies and businesses wishing to produce marketing materials use third party organisations, to create leaflets, flyers, posters, and websites etc. So the question arises, who owns the contents of the material or the intellectual property rights?

So who owns the copyright?

The answer to the above question may come as a surprise to many of you. If the third party (marketing company) creates the artwork, then the material will belong to them, instead of the business that is employing the third party organisation to carry out work for them.

It is essential that on employing a third party company to create marketing materials for your organisation, that you present a document that deals with copyright and the ownership afterwards and all other intellectual property rights of the content within the marketing materials that are produced for you. Failure to do so may result in them using your material for other developments. This could prove to be damaging to ones business if a competitor gets hold of these precious materials. 

If a competitor does copy your material, and you did not present the above mentioned document to the third party organization who produces your marketing materials, then you would not have a claim against your competitor for breach of copyright, as the content belongs to the third party organisation who created the artwork.

However if you have already appointed a third party company and no document was presented as such, you will need to get the marketing organisation to enter into a later agreement which they may refuse to enter into unless a further fee is paid. 

To avoid all complications, contact Bond Adams LLP Solicitors for expert advice on all your copyright, design and patent issues.