The One Contract Every Entrepreneur Needs
A LOVING LESSON WITH THE HELP OF YOUR FAVORITE BOY BAND. (Ok mine was NSYNC, but I digress…)
Close your eyes and pretend with me that it’s 2002.
You’re walking through Target — straight to the music section — and you pick up the latest BSB single.
When you leave Target, CD in hand, do you own that music? Not the copy of the recording, but the ACTUAL music on the disc?
Of course not.
And that’s the best way I can explain the importance of this one contract: The IP Rights Agreement.
Let me expound on that…
I’m Maria Spear Ollis, aka The Lunar Lawyer, and I’m going to shine some light on the one contract every entreprenur needs on hand.
What is an IP Rights Agreement, in a nutshell?
An IP Rights Agreement (aka Work for Hire Agreement) makes sure that any content or assets a non-employee creates for your business are your property — not theirs.
You need it because of the default copyright rules in place
Rule Number One: copyright (rights to creative content) doesn’t transfer from a freelance contributor to another business unless there’s a signed, written document that says so.
Rule Number Two: The default copyright owner for anything a contributor creates is that contributor, not your business. Even if you gave the contributor direction. Even if you paid him. Even if he said in an email “yeah, sure! You own this.”
An email is not a signed, written document, is it?
The contributor is considered the author of that end product…unless there’s a signed, written document that says otherwise.
You can imagine how important this is if…
• You brought someone in to create the workbook for your online course.
• You had an editor comb through the entire manuscript for your book and make revisions and suggestions all over it.
• A videographer came in and recorded you teaching the curriculum for your entire membership platform
You are paying good money for these things. And it would be a huge pain if you had to pull them or, heaven forbid, tag someone with a cease-and-desist just to come the realization that… oh. You don’t actually own what was copied.
What can happen without an IP Rights Agreement
The contributor could revoke your permission to use his property. (His edits, designs, footage.) For whatever reason. You stood up for something online that he’s not cool with. You didn’t credit him. Whatever. Because it’s technically his property.
The contributor could also repurpose his creations with his own clients. Because again, without the proper legal guardrails in place, it’s his property. Yuck.
When to use an IP Rights Agreement
There are a couple of scenarios where you’d use an IP Rights Agreement.
Scenario 1: You hired someone (let’s say a graphic designer), signed their contract, and then you realized, “Wait… I don’t know if their contract assigned rights to the end product to me.”
Scenario 2: You never signed a contract with someone that created assets for you.
(And psst… if you’re looking for that, plus a document that gets into the scope of your project, communication, terminating the relationship, etc…an independent contractor agreement is probably a better fit.)
Either way, this super important document makes sure you own what you paid for.