Who owns your creative work?

Services

Clear answers about who owns your creative work, and the agreements that make sure it stays that way.

Copyright advice

Working out what's actually protected in what you or your business have created, since copyright arises automatically in Australia but knowing what you can rely on (and what you can't) isn't always obvious.

Ownership reviews

Checking who legally owns your existing creative work, particularly if it was made by contractors, freelancers or agencies, where ownership doesn't always end up where people assume.

Contractor agreements

Making sure agreements with designers, developers and other contractors actually assign copyright to your business, since paying for work doesn't automatically mean you own it.

Licensing

Setting up agreements that let someone else use your creative work properly, or that make clear exactly what you're allowed to do with work you've licensed in from someone else.

Assignments

Formally transferring ownership of copyright from one party to another, so there's no ambiguity about who holds the rights going forward.

Infringement advice

Acting if someone's used your creative work without permission, or advising you if you've been accused of using someone else's.

Industries

Copyright plays out differently depending on what you make and who you make it for.

Designers

Making sure your creative output, from logos to layouts, stays yours when you hand it over to a client, and that your own contracts are clear about what you're actually licensing versus selling outright.

Architects

Protecting plans, drawings and design concepts, and understanding what happens to them once a project is built, including how much control you retain over a completed design.

Photographers

Clarifying who owns the images once they're delivered, licensed or used commercially by a client, so usage rights are agreed upfront rather than argued about after the fact.

Software developers

Making sure code, whether built solo, with contractors or with AI tools, is owned by the right entity, particularly when a business is preparing for investment or sale.

Marketing agencies

Getting client contracts right so ownership of campaigns, copy and creative is never in question, and so both sides know exactly what's being assigned versus licensed.

Content creators

Understanding what protects your work once it's published online, and what your options actually are when someone else uses it without asking.

Not sure whether you actually own what you've built?

Take the free IP Risk & Ownership Audit, or book a strategy call if you're ready to talk it through.

Common questions

Can I copyright an idea?

No. Copyright protects the actual expression of an idea, the written words, the code, the design, the photograph, not the underlying idea itself. Two people can have the same idea and both end up with valid, separate copyright in how they've each expressed it.

If I paid for it, don't I own it?

Not automatically. Paying for creative work gives you permission to use it in most cases, but it doesn't transfer ownership unless your agreement specifically assigns copyright to you. This is one of the most common and costly misunderstandings I see, especially with logos, websites and marketing material built by an outside contractor or agency.

Who owns contractor work?

Unless your agreement says otherwise, the contractor generally owns the copyright, even though you paid for it. This catches a lot of businesses off guard, particularly with websites, logos and marketing content built by an outside designer or agency. If ownership matters to you, it needs to be assigned in writing.

Can employees own copyright?

Generally, no, copyright created by an employee in the course of their employment belongs to the employer automatically. This is one of the few areas where the default legal position actually favours the business, but it only applies to genuine employees, not contractors.

Can AI own copyright?

No. Australian copyright law requires a human author, so AI-generated content sits in genuinely uncertain territory, it may not be protected by copyright at all, which has real implications if that content is central to your brand or business.

Can ChatGPT create copyright?

Not on its own. Whether you end up owning anything in what ChatGPT or a similar tool produces depends on the platform's terms and how much human creative input went into the result. It's worth understanding this before you build something commercially important around AI-generated content. (For a deeper look at AI and copyright specifically, see the AI & Emerging Technology page.)

Resources