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, 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 book, manual or other information you will want to be protected from it being used by another. This can be through copying or other methods. Anyone that wants to use your copyrighted material must get your permission and that is what the Copyright Licence is for.

You can purchase the Copyright Licence template and download it to your computer so that 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 document.

If someone isn’t sure if there is a copyright on material they need to look for a C with a circle encompassing it. This means that the material is indeed copyrighted. 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. When others see the copyright symbol, they will know that your material is copyrighted and a Copyright Licence Agreement is needed for permission to use it.

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.

Should you 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.

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. This document can be customised if you need to.  You can reuse it as many times as you need to without paying again.

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

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

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