Intellectual property
Work-for-hire agreement
The paper for commissioning creative work where the client is to own it outright rather than licence it. The phrase itself comes from United States copyright law and applies only in defined circumstances, so well-drafted versions do the job twice: they claim the status where it is available, and they add an outright assignment as a fallback where it is not. Beyond ownership, they deal with credit, whether the creator may show the work, and what happens to material the creator brought with them.
- In the catalogue
- Intellectual property
- Where it can live
- Any of the 184 governing laws
Who uses one
- Companies commissioning writing, illustration, music, video or code.
- Publishers and studios buying rights outright rather than by licence.
- Creators being asked to sign away ownership who want to read what that means.
What you are deciding
- What work is covered, and over what period
- Whether ownership arises on creation or on payment
- What is assigned as a fallback if the status does not apply
- How moral rights and credit are handled
- Whether the creator may show the work in a portfolio
- What pre-existing material the creator keeps, and what licence the client gets in it
- What the creator promises about originality and third-party material
- What is paid, and whether there is anything further
Blanks you leave stay blank and wait in the room. Nothing is filled in from a guess.
The sections a draft usually has
- 1The parties
- 2The commissioned work
- 3Ownership
- 4Assignment as a fallback
- 5Moral rights and credit
- 6Pre-existing material
- 7Warranties of originality
- 8Portfolio use
- 9Payment
A general outline, not a required one. What turns up in a draft follows what you described. A contract is written in the order a contract is read.
What people call it
The names this kind of paper goes by. They are here because people search for them. They also filter the catalogue. They are not a wordlist the door matches. At the composer you describe the deal in your own words instead.
- work for hire agreement
- work made for hire
- commissioned work agreement
- buyout agreement creative
- full rights buyout
- ghostwriting agreement
Questions people ask
- Does work for hire exist everywhere?
- No. It is a concept in United States copyright law with defined categories and conditions. Elsewhere the same result is usually reached by assignment, which is why both are often written into one paper.
- Does the creator lose the right to be credited?
- Credit and moral rights are dealt with separately from ownership, and in some systems moral rights cannot be assigned at all — only waived or consented to where the law allows.
- Can a creator still show the work?
- Only if the paper allows it. Portfolio use is a common carve-out and is usually written with a date or an approval step attached.
General answers about the document. Not advice about your situation. Not written about any one country.
Where it lives
A contract names the legal system it is governed by. That is a separate decision from which paper it is. You pick it at the door, from any of the 184 units in Governing law, including England and Wales, Delaware, California and New York.
You do not start from this page. Describe the deal in one sentence at the door. Read the draft back in plain language, in the order a contract is read.
Start it at the door →Related kinds