Protecting Your Company's Intellectual Property: A Practical Guide to Trademarks, Copyrights, Patents & Trade Secrets

Ownership of Work Created by Independent Contractors

Recall from Chapter 10 that an employer can own work created by independent contractors if the work falls in one of the ten categories of statutorily designated works (a contribution to a collective work, a part of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, a sound recording, a translation, a supplementary work, a compilation, an instructional text, a test, answer material for a test, or an atlas) and there is a written agreement between the parties specifying that the work is made for hire.

If the work is not within one of the ten enumerated categories, the commissioning party can still own the work if the independent contractor assigns in writing all rights in the work to the commissioning ...