FAQs

3. What about ownership of Intellectual Property?

A website and its constituent parts are protected by copyright and often protected by other types of intellectual property. The specific ownership of such intellectual property is important to address from the outset of any agreement you may enter into with a developer. Redmoth would make clear reference to any such ownership in our Agreement for Services, should we be successful in our tender.

However, as a working example, the individual components of a site will be protected by copyright. This means that the words/text, design, graphics, icons and layout of the website are all protected. UK law deems that copyright lies with the *author* of a work. In addition, the work has to be *original* which means that it does not have to be unique, but simply originate from the author and not be copied. It must have been “created as a result of some skill, labour and judgement.”

Therefore, if you are to include photographs or images for your website, you must first clarify your agreement with the photographer or the agency that has supplied them to you. Are you allowed to use the images on-line? Either you are the owner of the imagery or you are allowed to use the images under license.

Similarly, the content of the website is usually developed by the client. If this is the case, the client will own the intellectual property that is the content. If the client commissions an external developer to create the website, the developer will own copyright to the layout, the graphic devices and icons used across the website. The developer will invariably own the intellectual property to any database backend it has designed. For example, at Redmoth, all of the database systems we design constitute our intellectual property and are offered under license to our clients. We ensure that all intellectual property issues are clearly set out in our Agreement for Services.

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Read more about Intellectual Property >>

www.pandl.com
www.out-law.com
www.intellectual-property.gov.uk