Copyright on your website

This is an article provided by Karen Mason of Novalex Solicitors, Milton Keynes.

Have you ever wondered who owns the copyright to your web site or your sales brochure? The awful truth is that it probably isn’t you unless you have explicitly signed an agreement to that effect. Copyright is one of the most commonly misunderstood areas of intellectual property law. Under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 the person who creates the work – known as the author – is the first owner of its copyright.If you commission an independent contractor to create a copyright work, ownership of the copyright will be theirs unless there is express agreement to the contrary. Where there is no agreement the implication may be that there is an assignment or an exclusive or non-exclusive licence for whoever commissioned the work to use it. For instance, a computer program is protected by copyright. The owner has the right to sue for infringement of copyright as does an exclusive licensee, who would have the same rights and remedies as the owner. It is a simple matter to draw up a legal agreement in advance of commissioning any work where copyright is involved and it helps to avoid any confusion as to ownership and who has the right to protect the work.

Alan Bullen
Lynx Networks
also data cabling division - Lynx Data Cabling