Licensing reproductions
10 Copyright & Moral rights
- Who will own the copyright in the work under license? Note: The artist must retain copyright in the work otherwise they cannot license anyone else to reproduce it. The fact that the artist may have sold or parted possession with the original artwork does not affect copyright ownership. Transferring the copyright to the company reproducing the work will prevent the artist from profiting from their work in the future. However, assignment of copyright is common, for example where an artist's work has been commissioned for a corporate logo.
- Will the artist be granting rights under a trademark as well as copyright? When the licensed products will bear an image, symbol, name or other 'trademark' which is distinctive of the artist's work specialist advice from a trade mark agent or solicitor will be needed.
- Does the work to be licensed have an industrial application? Both registered and unregistered design rights will apply.
- The artist should assert their moral right of authorship in writing An artist's statutory moral right to be identified as the creator of a work must be asserted in writing. This assertion only affects the licensee. If the licensee intends to sub-licence rights to another party the original agreement should state that the licensee must notify the sub-licensee of the assertion of the artist's moral rights.
- What form of copyright notice or accreditation will appear on the copies? Copyright notices usually take the form of the copyright symbol © together with the artist's name and the date that the original was made/conceived
- Can the licensee transfer the license? Usually the licensee will not be allowed to transfer the licence to anyone else without the artist's consent. Otherwise the artist has no control over who is producing the products and no means of enforcing the payment of fees or royalties, since there will be no contract between the artist and the third party.
