Who owns copyright in freelance work in the UK?

The freelancer does. Under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 s.11, the author is the first owner of copyright. The employee exception applies to employees, not to a designer, developer or photographer on a contract for services. To transfer that copyright, they must assign it in writing, signed. Paying the invoice does not move ownership.

CDPA 1988 s.11 is the first-owner rule:

• s.11(1). The author of a work is the first owner of any copyright in it, subject to the rest of the section.
• s.11(2). Where a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work, or a film, is made by an employee in the course of employment, the employer is the first owner, unless agreed otherwise.

A freelancer is not working under a contract of employment. They are working under a contract for services. Commissioning a logo, a repo or a shoot does not make the client the first owner.

A photograph is an artistic work irrespective of artistic quality. That sits in the same first-owner rule. RAW files sit inside it as much as the JPEG you export. See Does a photographer have to hand over RAW files.

Copyright here is UK-wide. The contract you sign is the place the IP assignmentIP assignmentAn IP assignment is a transfer of ownership in the work, so the client owns it instead of the person who made it.More in the glossary or licence is written down. Start from a freelancer agreement, a graphic design contract or a photo licence.

Contracts for graphic designers, contracts for developers and contracts for photographers are the usual starting points. The longer how-to is What goes in a freelance or contractor agreement.

An IP assignment transfers ownership of the copyright. A licence is permission to use the work; the freelancer still owns it. An exclusive licence is a written, signed permission that stops everyone else — including the freelancer — using those same rights for the term. None of those three is implied by paying the invoice. See IP licence vs assignmentIP licence vs assignmentAn IP assignment transfers ownership of copyright or other intellectual property. A licence is permission to use it; the author still owns it. In England and Wales there is no work-made-for-hire first-owner rule for freelancers: Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 s.11. An assignment must be in writing and signed: s.90. Say which you mean, and when it happens.More in the glossary.

CDPA 1988 s.90 is the assignment rule. An assignment of copyright is not effective unless it is in writing signed by or on behalf of the assignor. Copyright may be assigned in whole or in part. A licence is permission to use the work; it is not an assignment of ownership.

CDPA 1988 s.92(1) is the exclusive-licence rule. An exclusive licence is a licence in writing signed by or on behalf of the copyright owner, authorising the licensee to the exclusion of all other persons, including the person granting the licence, to exercise a right which would otherwise be exercisable exclusively by the copyright owner. In Plain English: they may use those named rights, you may not, and nobody else may either, for the term you wrote.

A US work for hire heading does not do this work in England and Wales. Write assignment or licence in English words. Write the uses, the territory and the term. “All media, worldwide, in perpetuity” is a price, not a default.

Brand work often assigns a logo on payment and licences a campaign. Photography usually licences. Developers usually assign bespoke code on payment and licence libraries. Pick one shape per pile of files, and write it. The clause home is intellectual property assignment or intellectual property licence. Named uses sit in usage rights and credit.

No. Paying the invoice does not transfer copyright. An assignment is not effective unless it is in writing signed by or on behalf of the assignor. A paid invoice, a verbal “it’s yours”, or sending the files does not move legal title. The freelancer remains the owner until that signed writing exists.

CDPA 1988 s.90 is short and strict. The client’s signature on a purchase orderpurchase orderA purchase order is a buyer's written request to buy named goods or services on stated terms. It can form a contract if it is an offer that the supplier accepts. When each side fires its own standard terms, you have a battle of the forms. A master services agreement should say that its terms beat any PO small print.More in the glossary does not assign copyright. Clearing the invoice does not assign it either.

What payment can do is trigger a clause you already signed: “on payment in full, the Freelancer assigns…”. That clause is the written assignment, and payment is the event that makes it bite. Without that clause, payment is only payment.

A licence is different. A licence is permission to use the work, not a transfer of ownership. Licences are not caught by s.90 in the same way. If the paper is silent, a client may still argue they had permission to use the work for the purpose of the commission. That is not ownership. It is often a limited non-exclusive licence. Write the grant so that argument does not arise.

A depositdepositA deposit is money paid up front, before the main work or the final invoice.More in the glossary is a slice of the fee. It is not an assignment. Copyright still sits with the freelancer unless they assigned it in writing, signed. Credit the deposit to the fee and still pass rights only on payment in full.

If they use the work unpaid, that is a different page: Client using your work without paying. Chase the invoice as a debt, and tell them to stop public use until they pay or you agree a licence.

Write six things on one shared draft before the work starts: who owns what, whether it is an assignment or a licence, when that grant bites, what stays with the freelancer, moral rightsmoral rightsMoral rights are the author’s personal rights in a copyright work: to be identified as author, and not to have the work subjected to derogatory treatment. In the UK they sit in the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 ss.77–80. They cannot be assigned. They can be waived in writing, signed by the person giving them up, under s.87.More in the glossary and portfolio, and what happens if they have not paid. Agree it on one link, not in a later email thread.

A working ownership clause answers:

• The pile. Finals, working files, RAW, source, libraries. Name what is in, and what is out.
• Assignment or licence. One sentence per pile. See IP licence vs assignment.
• When it bites. On full payment, not on delivery and not on signature.
• Pre-existing materials. Licensed for this job, not assigned. Templates, component libraries, presets, earlier code.
• Third-party material. Stock, fonts, plugins, open-source. You cannot assign a licence you do not own. Disclose it.
• Moral rights. Assertion, any waiver, credit. They do not move with an assignment.
• Portfolio. Whether the freelancer may show the work after launch. See publicity and portfolio use.
• Unpaid work. No licence and no assignment until the invoice is cleared. A pause right if an invoice is overdue.
• WarrantywarrantyA warranty is a promise that something is true, such as “this work is original” or “we have the right to grant this licence.”More in the glossary, not an open indemnityindemnityAn indemnity is a promise to cover another party's losses arising from a particular event or claim.More in the glossary. A warranty is a promise that a fact is true — here, that the freelancer has the right to assign or license what they made. An indemnity is a promise to cover the other side’s losses if a named thing goes wrong. Price an indemnity if they insist on one for third-party files you introduced without a right to do so. Do not sign an unlimited indemnity for “any IP claim” on a day-rate job.

Example

On receipt of full payment the Freelancer assigns to the Client the copyright in the final Deliverables. Until then the Client has no licence to copy, publish, communicate or adapt them except as the Freelancer agrees in writing. Pre-existing materials, templates, libraries and working files stay with the Freelancer and are licensed only as part of the Deliverables. Third-party stock, fonts, plugins and open-source components remain on their own licences. Moral rights stay with the Freelancer unless waived in writing, signed. The Freelancer may show the public Deliverables in a portfolio after launch unless the Client objects in writing. If an invoice is unpaid 7 days after it is due, the Freelancer may pause the work and may revoke any temporary permission to use unpaid work.

In Plain English: they own the finals once they have paid. They may not use unpaid files. Your templates stay yours. Other people’s stock stays on its own licence. Credit and portfolio are separate sentences. If they are a week late, work stops.

Write that in intellectual property assignment. Named uses sit in usage rights and credit. Designers should start from a graphic design contract. Developers should start from a freelance developer contract. Photographers should start from a photographer contract.

Three rights sit beside the assignment. Moral rights stay with the author unless waived in writing, signed. Portfolio use is a licence back to the freelancer. Pre-existing materialspre-existing materialsPre-existing materials are tools, libraries or work the supplier already owned, which are licensed for the job rather than handed over.More in the glossary — templates, libraries, presets, earlier code — stay with the freelancer and are licensed for this job, not assigned.

Moral rights. The author of a copyright literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work, and the director of a copyright film, has the right to be identified as author or director and the right not to have the work subjected to derogatory treatment. Moral rights cannot be assigned. They may be waived by an instrument in writing signed by the person giving up the right. See CDPA 1988 ss.77, 80 and 87 and the moral rights clause.

The identification right must be asserted or it is not infringed. An IP assignment that is silent on moral rights leaves them with the freelancer. A brand that will crop, recolour and run the work without a byline needs a limited waiverwaiverA waiver is a choice not to enforce a right this time, without rewriting the contract. Accepting late work once does not, by itself, kill a time-is-of-the-essence clause if a no-waiver line is present. Waiver is not a variation: Rock Advertising Ltd v MWB [2018] UKSC 24 still requires the agreed method for a change of terms.More in the glossary of the uses they actually bought — not a worldwide waiver of every future parody.

Portfolio. An assignment of the work does not, by itself, give the freelancer a right to put it on their site. Write a licence back: named channels, whether they may name the client, and whether confidential work stays off the portfolio until launch. See publicity and portfolio use.

Templates and libraries. A client who paid for a logo did not buy the designer’s template file. A client who paid for a landing page did not buy the developer’s cart component. A client who paid for a gallery did not buy the photographer’s presets. Keep three piles:

Open-source and stock stay on their own licences. You cannot assign what you do not own. Disclose the third-party list. Photographers arguing over the catalogue should start with Does a photographer have to hand over RAW files.

On full payment. Not on signature, and not when you email the files. Until the invoice is cleared, the client has no right to publish. That is the line you point to when the logo is live and the last invoice is still open.

Three timings get mixed up:

• On signature. The client owns the work before it exists, and before they have paid. You then chase an invoice for files they already own.
• On delivery. The client owns the files the day you send them, even if the invoice is on net 30Net 30Net 30 means the client has 30 days from the invoice date to pay.More in the glossary. They can use the work for a month unpaid.
• On full payment. Ownership, or the licence, moves when the invoice is cleared. Until then they have no right to copy, publish or communicate the work except any review permission you wrote.

The freelance default is on full payment. Write it. What payment can do is trigger the clause you already signed. Without that clause, payment is only payment, and s.90 still requires writing, signed.

A pause right sits next to it. If an undisputed invoice is overdue, you may stop work and you may revoke any temporary permission to use unpaid files. That is how you avoid still supplying source while the last invoice sits.

Example

Copyright and any licence to use the Deliverables pass to the Client only on payment in full. Until then the Client has no right to copy, publish, communicate or adapt the Deliverables except as the Freelancer agrees in writing. If an invoice is unpaid 7 days after it is due, the Freelancer may pause the work and may revoke any temporary permission to use unpaid work.

In Plain English: they do not own it, and they may not use it, until they have paid. If they are a week late, work stops and any stop-gap permission comes back.

If they publish anyway, separate the debt from the copyright claim. The invoice is a money claim. The stop-use request is the copyright. Both are in Client using your work without paying.

On Contracts.io both sides draft, negotiate and e-signe-signatureAn e-signature is any electronic way of showing agreement to a document, such as a typed name, a drawn signature or a click.More in the glossary one shared contract, so the ownership line is the version you both signed. That is two-sided contracts: one paper, both sides on the same link. Describe the job in a sentence. Lex, our AI host, drafts. You share one link. Nobody emails v4_final.docx back and forth.

The client opens that link. They can Accept, Counter or Decline on the same version, then both of you e-sign it. The other side never pays and does not need an account.

Start from a freelancer agreement, a graphic design contract or a photo licence. A site build can start from a website build. You can also start from the AI contract generator or the contract generator.

That does not chase an invoice for you. It does mean the IP assignment, the licence, the pre-existing materials split and the moral rights waiver are the words you both signed, not a line lost in email.

Free £0, Plus £15/mo, Pro £29/mo, Team £119/mo for 5 seats, Enterprise from £750 — see /pricing.

Try it on contracts.io: describe the job in one sentence, share one link, and e-sign before the first file goes across.

Contracts for graphic designers, contracts for developers and contracts for photographers are the wider sets of terms. UK graphic design contract is the design paper. UK freelance developer contract is the code paper. UK photographer contract is the stills paper. Client using your work without paying is the unpaid-use page. Does a photographer have to hand over RAW files is the working-files page. IP assignment, licence, moral rights and pre-existing materials are the glossary. Intellectual property assignment is the clause.