A Work For Hire Contract establishes that you will own the rights to any creative materials that someone else creates while working for you. While the idea of a work for hire agreement might sound a bit extreme or unfair, there are actually many instances when a work for hire form makes a lot of sense.
If you employ a designer a work for hire contract is an important asset. The last thing that you want is for your designer to claim ownership over work that you paid them to create. For example, if your designer worked on a great new logo for a client, you wouldn’t want that designer to be able to claim that they owned the rights to the logo. This is where a work for hire contract comes in. The contract would stipulate that the rights to any work that they create under your employment would belong to you.
There are other examples of situations where it makes sense to use a work for hire agreement as well:
- If you ask someone to help you write a book
- If you hire session musicians to contribute to a recording
- If you hire someone to write the content for your website
Any time you hire someone else to develop creative material for you, it’s a good idea to ask them to sign a work for hire agreement before the work begins. While you can sometimes get away with having them sign a work for hire contract after the work has been completed, it’s typically a better idea to have them sign it before the work begins.
If a work already exists and you want to acquire the rights to that work, there are other options. You can use an assignment of copyright form or a licensing form to legally use the material.
Click and Copyright offers a Work For Hire Form that is easy to use and includes instructions for just $4.95. Other companies are typically charging $14.95 or more of the same thing.
All of our forms are included with our verified package and annual package