Electronic copy only (pdf)

Who holds copyright in software and how to deal with this in contracts.

Objectives:

• To ensure that a company which commissions software to be developed (either by a software house or an independent freelance programmer) secures as many rights as possible to the software
• To ensure suppliers of software secure title to their products when using freelance programmers
• To ensure that there is a fair balance between the interests of the company and the supplier of software which has been paid for by the company with regard to the future exploitation of that software by the supplier
• To ensure that if the software project goes wrong the company has rights to use all relevant materials including the right to take the project and materials to a third party
• To ensure that the company can demonstrate it has title to all its major assets including commissioned software. The need to demonstrate ownership of significant assets frequently arises on the transfer of a business

*This Legal Guidance Note is only available as a pdf, which will be sent as an email attachment.