This Deed of Assignment is used whenever one person, or a company, wants to sell and/or transfer some or all of the intellectual property rights in a Copyright work to another person or company. Assignments effectively change the ownership of the intellectual property rights assigned, leaving the original owner with no further rights.

An assignment is used to confirm a transfer of ownership. If the Copyright Works in question have previously been paid for the rights are sold for £1 to ensure that the assignment is legal. Where they are being sold for a price the value should be inserted. Careful thought should be given to the value of the intellectual property rights whenever the rights are being sold for their full value in an ‘arm’s length transaction’ (such as on the sale of a business), rather than for a nominal amount.

Below is an example of how the agreement could be used. This does not cover every situation but gives an idea of how it works in a practical business situation. Additional clauses can always be added, or existing clauses adjusted for your personal use, by a specialist Intellectual Property lawyer.

When would you use it?

When you wish to transfer ownership of a two dimensional unregistered work which has copyright.

With Whom?

An Artist, Author, Creator of Software, Graphic Designer, Photographer or anyone who creates visual 2 dimensional works.

Why?

To transfer the ownership of the unregistered automatic rights in a copyright work.

This agreement is a reusable legal document template which you can alter to include names, dates, addresses etc. There may be some clauses which need to be amended or deleted as they do not apply to your circumstances. This is because the document is designed as a general document to cover most commercial situations and therefore certain wording may not be appropriate, or suitable, for all situations.

As this agreement has not been drafted specifically for your circumstances, it is strongly advised, once you have made the appropriate changes to meet your business requirements, that you check it with your solicitor or with an ACID Accredited lawyer before using it, in order to ensure that the document suits your particular circumstances. No liability is accepted by ACID or any ACID Accredited Law Firm.