Re: Starting a part time freelance web business

[Matt]

"mattxy" wrote:

Thanks Matt and TheDoc. I will look through the zip file you sent over. As for the copyright, is this something that I should discuss with future clients. I know I have seen some sites with copyrights on them and that could be for the logo or the name they currently have. Or should I just not mention it at all and leave it up to them?

This has been a huge help. Thanks

If they have a plan of disbanding you in the future, consider writing up a part in the contract of transferring copyright ownership (for a hefty fee, by the way, so you’ll either keep your job or get a large sum from the transaction). Remember that both parties must sign a written contract for copyright transfers to be valid. After 28 years, the party that is currently the contractual owner of the copyright must file the renew. If something pertaining to copyright that involves you goes to court, the contract serves as a legal binding document stating that you are not the current owner and that all further inquiries must go to the current contractual owner.

As for discussing copyright, if you and your client do not discuss or do not have a written document of copyright ownership, you automatically receive the copyright. This is known as "implied copyright". I would keep the copyright under your name, if you can, and set a fee for transferring the copyright ownership. While this may seem weaselly, you did do the work, and it can still reside under your name. I’ve been doing this, and charging a $200 (though, I’ve gone as high as $1500, depending on the client) for transfer of copyright ownership in the contract at the initial billing.

Finally, all logos, names, etc. fall under Trademark and take it from me. Let the CLIENT file them. They are not something you want to handle if a legal issue arose. Besides that, save some money and just let the client pay the fees to register it, and make sure that you wouldn’t have to pay transfer fees in the future (this entire paragraph also applies to patents, btw). Though, I doubt a client would even think of letting you own the trademark. Copyright is one thing, but a trademark is like your own personal name and you wouldn’t want somebody else to own that, would you?