Logo design - who owns the rights?

Bearty

Registered User
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Does anybody know the legalities of this situations please? My husband is a sole trader and paid a family member who is a graphic designer for branding work approx. 1 year ago (logo design, business cards, letterheads and vehicle sign writing to be specific). My husbands business received a FAS grant to pay for this service and payment was made directly to the graphic designer from Fas. Fast forward 1 year and my husband has fallen out with this family member for personal reasons. He purchased a new business vehicle which he had the same logo's etc applied to by a different sign writer. This has upset the family member and they have contacted the new designer demanding he doesn't publish pics etc of the work he has carried out. Who owns the rights to these designs and are we entitled to continue using them on business letterheads / vehicles etc going forward? How difficult is it to have these copyrighted into my husbands name? There was no formal contract in place between my husband and the initial graphic designer who carried out the design work. Petty of them to this I know, particularly when they were paid for their services! We obviously want to avoid hefty costs of re-branding also.
 
Unless otherwise specified by way of contract or other agreement, the intellectual property rights in a design such as you describe belong to the designer.
 
Are there not exceptions?

What is not Copyrightable?

From a freelance and graphic design point-of-view there are certain things that cannot be copyrighted. This list includes, but is not exhaustive:-

variations on typography, coloring or lettering
lists of ingredients or contents
common information, such as telephone directories, calendars or TV guides
government documents
Other things which are commonly thought to be copyrightable, but which are not, include:-

names, titles, slogans or phrases
symbols (eg. The Nike Swoosh)
non-functional aspect of a product (e.g., The distinctive curved Coca-Cola bottle)
However, these are protected under law as Trademarks.

http://blog.kunvay.com/what-every-freelancer-and-graphic-designer-needs-to-know-about-copyright/
If there is a Logo which doesn't fall under any of the above then I assume that would be different.
 
Design rights are not the same as copyright. A design is automatically protected for three years under EU law.
 
Reading your post it seems the family member is not saying you cannot use it they are saying he does not want the new design company publishing it on their website etc which could infer they did the design concept and possible take potential future design work from your family member.

The rights are with the designer unless otherwise stated,
No designer if fully paid on-time would challenge the use of the design by the company they did the design for.
Copyright laws in Ireland are not great and difficult to enforce so either way its not an issue worth pursuing.

i would suggest out of courtesy the new agency should agree not to publish his work on their site in any form, or make it clear that the identity was designed by XXX company it does not need to get legal in anyway.
 
Thanks everyone, it all still seems a bit confusing! Bluemac you are right they are not insisting the design isn't used, not at this point anyway, more so that its not published by someone else, but wouldn't be surprised if that is where theyre headed with this so I wanted to know where we stand. Off course legal action isn't being considered, to be honest the less we have to do with them in any regard the better - I more want to know are we entitled to continue using the logo they designed? There was no contract specifying we cannot use it or that only they can carry out further printing work using that logo. Surely with it being his legally registered business name my husband can continue to use the logo and can pay whomever he wished to print that logo for him provided that person isn't claiming that they have designed it also?
 
This is not a copyright issue as apparently no copyright was applied for. The logo & artwork, based on there being no agreement to the contrary, is the exclusive intellectual property of the designer. Any reproduction by a third party (e.g. another designer or print shop) of the logo & artwork without the original designers express permission could be classified as an IP rights infringement or theft.
 
This is not a copyright issue as apparently no copyright was applied for.

There's no such thing as "applying for copyright" in Ireland. If something is capable of being copyrighted, the copyright exists automatically upon creation.
 
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