Copyright Licence

If you have material in which you own the copyright, but you want to give permission to someone else to use it, such as a third party, then you would use the Copyright Licence Agreement for this.

A copyright licence does the following:

• protects your material from being used by anyone else,
• while permitting the intended person to use it for certain agreed purposes, and
• you retain ownership of it.

If you have written a work, then you will want to be protected from it being used by another. This can be through copying or other methods. A work could include a photograph, video, song, book, manual or other information. Anyone that wants to use your copyrighted material must get your permission. That is what the Copyright Licence is for.

For more about copyright and how it works have a look at Wikpedia.

Legalo’s Copyright Licence Template

You can purchase the Copyright Licence template and download it to your computer. Then you can use it to give your permission for someone to use all or part of your copyrighted material. The Copyright Licence will clearly state who you have given the OK to in using the copyright work.

After you purchase the document, you will download it in Microsoft Word format. Then you can fill in the document on your computer, giving your permission and still protect your rights. You can customise this document if you need to.  You can reuse it as many times as you need to without paying again.

Claiming copyright protection

To check if there is a copyright on material, you should look for a C with a circle encompassing it. This means that the material is indeed under a copyright protection claim. When others see the copyright symbol, they will know that:

• your material is subject to copyright protection; and
• they will need a Copyright Licence Agreement for permission to use it.

If the material has R with a circle around it, it would be a registered trademark (an unregistered trademark should have “TM” after it, to show it is a claimed trademark), which is different.

If you have started a business with an idea that you created, you will be the one to hold the copyright. However, if you are an employee of a business you most likely will not be the one that holds the copyright. Employees have been hired to create ideas or products for the company that they work for, so in this instance the copyright would be held by the business rather than the individual. For that employee to use any or all of the copyright they would have to get permission. In order to do that they would have to use the Copyright Licence and have the business allow them to use it.

If you want to give your permission for another individual to copy some of your work, you still need to have the easy-to-use Copyright Licence Agreement. We have had this document drafted by a solicitor in the UK so that it is legally binding yet easy to understand.

Copyright assignments

If you ever sell your copyright, then you can use our Copyright Assignment template for that transfer.

If you use a freelancer to create a work that can have copyright protection, then you will need them to assign that copyright to you. This is because (unlike with employees creating works) the freelancer is the one who would have the copyright vested in them. So, again, use our copyright assignment template for that.

If you are also licensing other intellectual property rights, then consider our other templates:

1. Intellectual Property Licence (use this for copyright and other IP rights); or
2. Trademark Licence.