ANSWERED.
These are the ownership questions makers actually ask. Every page gives the answer in the first two sentences, then shows you the document that settles it.
OWNERSHIP
Who owns the logo my designer made?
In most cases the designer owns the copyright in the logo they drew, even after you have paid the invoice, unless a written contract assigns those rights to you. Without an assignment clause you typically hold only an implied licence to use the logo, which can be limited and revocable. Ask for a signed IP assignment before you build a brand around the mark.
Do I own my work if I was paid for it?
Not automatically. As the creator, you generally keep copyright in your work by default even after being paid, unless a contract explicitly assigns the rights to your client, or the arrangement legally qualifies as work made for hire under US law. Getting paid usually only grants the client a licence to use the work, not full ownership, unless the paperwork says otherwise.
What is chain of title?
Chain of title is the unbroken paper trail showing who has owned a piece of intellectual property, from the original creator through every subsequent assignment, licence, sale or inheritance, up to the present day. A clean chain of title is what lets a buyer, investor, publisher or court verify that whoever claims ownership today actually holds valid rights. A break or gap anywhere in that trail can put the entire ownership claim in doubt.
How do I prove I created something first?
You prove first creation with dated, independently verifiable evidence made at or near the time you finished the work, such as a copyright registration, a timestamped file with metadata, or a public, tamper-evident record like a Deed. A private file on your own laptop with an editable date is weak evidence on its own, because you could have changed it. What matters is a record that a third party, not you, can independently confirm was made on a specific date.
Does my contractor own my code?
Likely yes, unless your contract explicitly assigns the code to you. Custom software written by an independent contractor generally does not fall into the narrow US statutory categories for contractor work for hire, so paying an invoice does not transfer ownership on its own. You need a written IP assignment clause covering the source code, and ideally the underlying documentation, for the rights to move to you. The same risk applies in the EU and UK: there is no work-for-hire shortcut for contractors there either, so an explicit assignment is the only route to full ownership.
Do I need to register copyright?
You do not need to register a work for copyright to exist, since protection arises automatically the moment you create and fix it in a tangible form, in both the US and the EU. In the US, however, registration with the Copyright Office is legally required before you can file an infringement lawsuit, and it is also a prerequisite to claiming statutory damages and attorney's fees, which makes it worth doing for anything commercially important. The EU has no general copyright registration system, so protection there relies on other proof of creation and date.
Who owns a commissioned portrait?
The artist who paints or draws a commissioned portrait owns the copyright by default, in both the US and the EU, unless a signed contract assigns those rights to the client. Paying for the portrait buys the physical object and a licence to display it, not the right to reproduce it, unless the contract says so explicitly.
Can I trademark my artist name?
Yes, you can trademark an artist name if you use it in commerce to sell music, merchandise or services and it is distinctive rather than purely descriptive. Registration with the USPTO or the EUIPO gives you stronger, nationwide or EU-wide rights than the limited local rights you get automatically through use alone.
What are moral rights?
Moral rights are a creator's personal rights to be credited as the author of a work and to object to distortion or mutilation that damages their reputation, separate from any copyright or licence they hold. They are strong, non-waivable rights across the EU and UK, but in the US they are limited by federal law almost entirely to visual artists under the Visual Artists Rights Act.
Do NFTs transfer copyright?
No, buying an NFT does not automatically transfer copyright in the underlying artwork or file. It transfers ownership of a blockchain token pointing to the work, similar to owning a numbered print, unless the smart contract terms or a separate written agreement explicitly assigns copyright to the buyer.
CONTRACTS
What is work for hire?
Work for hire is a US copyright doctrine under which the employer, or in limited cases the commissioning party, is legally treated as the author of a work, owning it automatically from the moment of creation, rather than needing a later assignment. It applies automatically to employees acting within their job, and to independent contractors only for specific categories of work with a signed written agreement stating it is work made for hire. The doctrine does not exist in this form under EU or UK law.
What is an IP assignment?
An IP assignment is a written agreement in which the creator or current owner of intellectual property, such as copyright, transfers ownership permanently and completely to another party. Unlike a licence, which only grants permission to use the work while the creator keeps ownership, an assignment moves the underlying rights themselves, so the assignor generally has no further claim over the work once it is signed. Most jurisdictions, including the US, EU and UK, require a copyright assignment to be in writing and signed to be valid.
What happens if there is no contract?
Without a written contract, default copyright and contract law rules fill the gap, which usually means the creator retains ownership while the payer holds only an implied, often ambiguous licence to use the work. Disputes without a contract are harder and slower to resolve, since courts have to infer intent from conduct, emails, and invoices rather than reading a clear agreement. A short retroactive agreement, signed as soon as possible, is still far better than nothing.
Can a client resell my work?
A client can only resell your work if their contract or licence explicitly grants resale or sublicensing rights, since a standard usage licence covers the client's own use, not onward sale to third parties. Without that clause, reselling the work is a breach of the licence and a potential copyright infringement, regardless of whether the client paid for the original commission.
What is a reversion clause?
A reversion clause is a contract term that returns rights, such as copyright or a licence, back to the original creator when a specified condition is met, most commonly the end of a fixed term, a period of non-use by the rights holder, or termination of the underlying deal. It gives a creator a route back to control of their work instead of a transfer being permanent regardless of what happens afterward.
MUSIC
Do I need a split sheet?
Yes, you need a split sheet any time more than one person contributes to writing a song, even a single lyric line or a beat. It records who owns what percentage of the composition before the track earns any money, which prevents arguments once royalties, sync deals or streaming income arrive. Without one, ownership defaults to unclear, roughly equal shares that are hard to prove or dispute later.
What is a sync license?
A sync license is permission to synchronize a piece of music with visual media, such as a film, television show, advert, video game or online video. It typically requires two separate clearances: a sync licence from the publisher or songwriter for the composition, and a master use licence from the label or rights holder for the specific recording.
How do music splits work?
Music splits are the percentage shares of ownership in a song's composition, agreed among the writers, producers and any other contributors before or shortly after the track is finished. Splits are recorded in a split sheet, a short signed document that lists each contributor's name, role and percentage, and this document is what publishers, collection societies and collaborators rely on when royalties are paid out.
What is the difference between a master and a composition?
The composition is the underlying song, meaning the melody, chord structure and lyrics, and the master is the specific recorded performance of that song. These are two entirely separate copyrights that can be owned by different people or companies, and both must be cleared separately for most commercial uses, including sync, sampling and cover licensing.
AI
Can AI train on my music?
In the EU, AI companies can train on your music unless you have opted out using a machine-readable reservation, under the text and data mining exception in the Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive. In the US, there is no equivalent opt-out right in statute, and companies are instead relying on unsettled fair use arguments that courts are actively deciding case by case. Either way, an unauthorised use for training is not automatically legal just because a model was trained on public internet data.
Who owns AI generated images?
In the US, the Copyright Office has repeatedly refused to register images generated purely by AI with no meaningful human creative input, meaning such images may have no copyright owner at all. If you meaningfully edit, arrange or combine AI outputs with your own creative choices, the human-authored portions can attract copyright. In the EU, the position is similar: protection generally requires a human author making free and creative choices, not a prompt alone.
What is the EU AI Act disclosure rule?
Article 50 of the EU AI Act requires providers of certain AI systems to mark synthetic content in a machine-readable format and requires deployers to disclose when content is an AI-generated deepfake. These transparency obligations apply from 2 August 2026, giving providers and deployers a defined runway to build compliant labelling into their systems.
LICENSING
What is a perpetual license?
A perpetual licence is a licence granting the right to use a piece of work for an unlimited duration, with no expiry date, unlike a time-limited licence that ends after a set term. It is still fundamentally a licence, not ownership, meaning the original creator keeps the copyright and the licensee only holds the specific usage rights described in the agreement. A perpetual licence can still be limited in other ways, such as being non-exclusive, restricted to a particular territory, or scoped to a specific use.
What does royalty free actually mean?
Royalty free means you pay for a licence once, upfront, and then use the work without paying additional fees each time you use it, rather than paying a running royalty per use, per unit sold, or per broadcast. It does not mean the work is free, and it does not mean you own it or can use it without restriction. Royalty-free licences are still typically limited by scope, such as permitted use cases, and are usually non-exclusive, meaning the same asset can be licensed to other buyers too.
What is fair use, really?
Fair use is a US legal defence, not a fixed right, that allows limited unlicensed use of copyrighted material when a court decides the use qualifies after weighing four factors: purpose, the nature of the original work, how much was used, and the effect on the market for the original. It is decided case by case, so there is no fixed word count, time limit or percentage that automatically makes a use fair.
Can I use a font commercially?
You can use a font commercially only if its licence permits it, and most quality fonts require a paid commercial licence separate from any free download. Desktop use, webfont embedding and app or ebook embedding are typically licensed separately, so having one does not automatically cover the others.
How much should I charge for a license?
There is no single correct price for a licence, because the fee should scale with exclusivity, territory, duration and scope of use, not with the work's production cost. A narrow, non-exclusive, one-market, one-year licence is worth far less than an exclusive, worldwide, perpetual one, even for the identical piece of work.
IMAGE AND LIKENESS
Can someone use my voice in an ad?
Not without your consent. Your voice is protected under publicity or personality rights in most US states and under similar personality right principles in the EU and UK, meaning someone generally cannot use a recognisable imitation of your actual voice, or an AI clone of it, in an advertisement without your permission. This protection applies even if they never use an actual recording of you, since courts have found liability for deliberately imitating a distinctive voice.
Who owns photos of me?
The photographer owns the copyright in a photo by default, even a photo of you, unless a contract assigns it elsewhere. You separately hold likeness or personality rights over your own image, which can block commercial uses of the photo even though you do not own the copyright itself.
What is a model release?
A model release is a signed document in which a photographed or filmed person grants permission for their image to be used in specific ways. It exists because copyright ownership of a photo does not include the right to commercially exploit the subject's likeness, so the release is the separate permission that closes that gap.