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Design Rights

If someone designs and subsequently makes for me an item, who owns the rights the design?
2014 Target;
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Comments

  • bod1467
    bod1467 Posts: 15,214 Forumite
    edited 7 April 2013 at 9:11PM
    It depends on how the contract is framed. If you set it up such that you retain the IP/design rights and the other party agrees to the contract, then you own them.
  • shaun_from_Africa
    shaun_from_Africa Posts: 12,858 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Unless it has been agreed otherwise,when a person has paid for something to be designed for them, it is normally that person who becomes the lawful owner of the design.
  • paddyrg
    paddyrg Posts: 13,543 Forumite
    If it is specifically a commission where you employed the designer probably you do. If you instead paid a designer a fixed fee to design something to solve a problem, they may well do.

    I suspect that either way, a few design tweaks will get past any rights you have in the product so remain on the same side when it comes to exploitation. If you have a novel process you might patent, but surface aesthetic design is much harder to exert ownership over!
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