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"Generally, the author or creator of work is the first owner of its copyright, as stated in the Copywright Designs and Patents Act 1988. However, if the Author or creator is an employee and on the basis that such work was created in the course of employment copyright and ownership would rest with you. Services provided by either an individual or via a service company on a consultancy or freelance basis will also create some intellectual property rights.

 

Freelancers would own the copyright in the work created by them, unless you have a written agreement, assigning copyright to the agency. Assignment would make you legal owner of the rights and can relate to work created by the freelancer in the future.

 

In assigning copyright to the agency, you should also consider obtaining the freelancer's waiver of moral rights. Failure to obtain a waiver enables the freelancer to enforce the right to be identified as the author of the work and would also enable the freelancer to object to derogatory treatment of the work by the agency.

 

You should therefore consider entering into a consultancy agreement, for example, or a similar agreement with each freelancer in order to assign and waive such rights before any work is commenced."