What do you think?
After graduating, Christine started work as a Graduate Architect for Simply Architecture Ltd and contributed to designs for a residential apartment block.
Can Christine claim copyright ownership to the plans they helped design?
The importance of contracts
In any kind of work relationship, the most important consideration is the contract which regulates it. When reading contracts, it is important to know that they may only discuss intellectual property and not copyright specifically.
Copyright can be dealt with in two fundamentally different ways:
- assessment: the copyright owner transfers some or all copyright to the other party. The copyright owner will lose all rights to use their own material. This is also referred to as ‘transfer’.
- Licence: The copyright owner keeps copyright but allows the other party to use the copyright work. This is also referred to as ‘permission’ or ‘grant of rights’.
Copyright will be automatically assigned to another person if you’ve agreed to it in a contract. Similarly, copyright will automatically revert to you if that is what was agreed upon.
Despite contracts being commonplace, there is still plenty of work that occurs without a written contract. When copyright ownership is transferred it must be assigned in writing. As you can imagine verbal contracts are complicated to enforce. Without a written contract covering copyright ownership, a series of legal assumptions will apply.
Who owns copyright in the workplace?
As an employee, the law assumes that any copyright you create in your employment is owned by your employer.
Most jobs have an employment contract which often assigns the copyright and other intellectual property to the employer to remove any doubt.
If you are a freelancer, the law assumes that you retain copyright and intellectual property in the things that you author. Copyright assessments need to be in writing and any written contract will override this assumption. You may also need to check your agreements with any intermediary if you are using apps or agencies to get work, such as an outsourcing service like AirTasker.
Commissioned works are a special kind of work where you are paid (commissioned) to produce something. You are usually paid to produce a creative work, rather than for the hours of work providing the service. If you are commissioned for domestic photography or create a portrait, video or sound recording, then the assumption is that the copyright is transferred to the person commissioning the work.
Tip
Change of ownership has no effect on the duration of copyright.
What do you think now?
Can Christine claim copyright ownership of the designs for the residential apartment block?
Christine's copyright ownership of the apartment plans is dependent on the terms of their employment contract with Simply Architecture Ltd.
If they are an employee then the copyright is usually retained by their employer, and if they are a freelancer the copyright is usually retained by them. However, written contracts may vary these norms.