You Own Your Work Until You Sign It Away

The default

Section 17 of the Copyright Act, 1957 provides that the author of a work is the first owner of the copyright in it, subject to the exceptions in the section. Clause (c) covers work made in the course of the author employment under a contract of service, where the employer is first owner.

A freelancer works under a contract for services rather than a contract of service. The employment exception is drafted around the latter, which is why the default first ownership stays with the freelancer. That is the starting point, and everything the client acquires flows from a document rather than from the payment.

Why clients assume otherwise

The assumption is understandable. A client commissioning a logo, an app or a set of photographs has paid for it, uses it commercially, and reasonably believes it is theirs. In many cases the contract does assign it, and the assumption is correct for the wrong reason.

Where it goes wrong is in the engagements with no written agreement at all, or with a short-form scope of work that says nothing about intellectual property. Those are common in Indian freelance work, and they leave the position unclear in a way that suits neither side when it eventually matters.

Assignment and licence are different asks

An assignment transfers ownership. A licence permits use on stated terms while ownership stays with you. Clients often ask for assignment out of habit when a licence would meet their actual need.

That distinction is your negotiating room. A client who needs to use a design across their marketing does not necessarily need to own the copyright in your underlying illustration style, your source files, or the concepts you did not use. Offering a broad, perpetual licence for the delivered work while retaining ownership is a normal outcome and one many clients accept once the difference is explained.

What to keep

• Pre-existing tools, libraries, templates and components you bring to every job.
• Concepts and drafts the client did not select, which are frequently swept in by wide clauses.
• The right to display the work in your portfolio, which is separate from ownership and often omitted.
• Source files, where the deliverable is the output rather than the working material.
• Anything you built before the engagement began.

The clause worth insisting on

Whatever else you negotiate, ask for the transfer to be conditional on payment in full. A clause providing that ownership passes only on receipt of the final payment converts an unpaid invoice from a collections problem into an ownership problem for the client, which is a materially stronger position for you.

It is also a term clients rarely refuse, because a client who intends to pay loses nothing by it. Resistance to that specific clause tells you something worth knowing early.