[Dominic Carnell]

Nonsense - No need for deed of copyright assignment - waste of time imo - Only in a very crap world does the designer own the copyright to your logo that he designed for you that you briefed him for and then paid him to design - I think you will find it is the other way round and the copyright belongs to you as the owner of the intellectual copyright (that is what a court would say) and what in the sam hill is he going to do with your logo - WHY would he want to own your crappy logo (nothing personal against you btw) copyright - what can he do with it - nothing is the answer because it belongs to you so dont worry about it - you dont have to sign an agreement it belongs to you as of right because you have contracted for him to design it

No, it is not nonsense - it is the law. I suggest you check your facts and stop making a complete fool of yourself.

[Buckland]

Just cut out the insults and take some advice - copyright exists when an intellectual property is created - it does not have to be protected by anything else in terms of a legal instrument - you go check your facts sunshine...

[Dominic Carnell]

Just cut out the insults and take some advice - copyright exists when an intellectual property is created - it does not have to be protected by anything else in terms of a legal instrument - you go check your facts sunshine...

I can only assume your comments are some kind of wind up, and or a joke? I won't go into my background, but I should know what I'm talking about.

To anyone else reading this; if you want to see the facts in black and white, go here:

http://www.ipo.gov.uk/types/copy/c-ownership/c-commissioned.htm

The page clearly states:

"When you ask or commission another person or organisation to create a copyright work for you, the first legal owner of copyright is the person or organisation that created the work and not you the commissioner, unless you otherwise agree it in writing."

[garry22]

I've just stolen this from another site....

Generally, the creator owns the rights to the work, except in the case of a “work for hire” arrangement, such as an employer/employee relationship. If you’re a freelancer or business owner hired to create a specific work, you are considered the creator and retain all rights, unless you have a “work for hire” agreement with the client that grants them ownership of the work. These details should be negotiated and outlined in your contract for every job so there is no question about ownership

[peter maybury]

Carpet Dawg,
In answer to you question, I looked into copyright law a few years ago when we had a sign business. We were employing graduate graphic designers that were coming up with very good designs for signs and vans etc that sometimes we would not get the job, but a few weeks later we would see something with our design on erected by people who did not have the ability to create.
Basically any thing that you produce and submit to anybody needs to have the c circle copyright logo on it with a date. Anybody who produces anything the same would need to prove that is was produced before yours.
It is not that complicated and once I had clarified this we did stop some people using our designs. It works both ways though we did have some Chinese takeaway give us a drawing of something they wanted as a sign. They ripped this off some multinational. Because we had scanned the original drawing given to us, no action was taken against us but the takeaway had the cost of rebranding.
Most legitimate firms will not break copyright laws. At the end of the day you only have to make subtle changes to something to make it unique to you.
Peter
www.carpetcleanercardiff.comhttp://

[wynne jones]

There's who owns the design issue but a separate issue is passing yourself off as someone else. If a cc creates a logo slightly different to yours, you could still argue the public may mistake them for you.

[garry22]

At least someone got some satisfaction...

http://www.chillingeffects.org/notice.cgi?sID=805723

[Terry Guilford]

Just to add my two pennies worth, as a franchised brand we had our logo professionally designed, part of this process I believe is checking if there is anything registered like it. A reputable company will not pass that logo on to anybody else but like everything you get what you pay for. Once you are trading and legitimately using that logo you have certain rights without having to copy write it or put TM beside it. In this instance since you probably never intend to trade in the US or the other party trade in the UK its probably not worth pursuing, however in the case of a franchise you would have to as there is always the possibility that the company could become international.

This is purely my recollection of discussions we had 6 or more years ago, I would be open to correction on any of the above.

Terry

[Mike Gwilliam]

I remember a case in Blackpool where a garage used the name MGM motors.

It was in the paper that MGM studios US persued this guy to remove the name or they would take him to court.

He was forced to remove the name. I don't know whether this still applies.

It's like hey! we'll go and buy a car from MGM motors in Blackpool......they make films, don't they?

[jim mca]

From what I read you cant copyright something that does not belong to you the example in the FSB mag was innocent smothies who had problems with there logo when trade marking there brand.