Licensing & Assignment

Copyright ownership doesn't always sit where people assume it does. The creator owns the work by default — which means the business that paid for a logo, a website, custom photography, or software may own far less than it thinks, sometimes nothing more than an implied permission to use it. Whether you are the creator granting rights or the business acquiring them, the difference between what was intended and what was actually transferred lives in the paperwork.

We draft and review the agreements that move copyright cleanly: assignments that transfer ownership outright, licenses that grant defined rights while you keep the copyright — exclusive or non-exclusive, limited by territory, medium, or term — and work-for-hire and independent-contractor agreements that settle ownership before the work is created, when it's easiest. For creators, a well-drafted license can turn one work into a recurring source of income; for businesses, a clean assignment or work-for-hire clause prevents the unwelcome discovery that a contractor still owns your brand assets.

Copyright law adds a trap for the unwary here: transfers of ownership and exclusive licenses must be in writing to be valid. A handshake deal can leave both sides with something different from — and less than — what they bargained for. All agreement drafting and review is quoted at a flat fee.