Protecting the Designer

Before working in the design industry a designer should be familiar with work agreements that should be included in a contract. Work agreements are legal documents that specify the ownership terms of the work created by the designer. Two common work agreements include a work-for-hire and an assignment. A work-for- hire agreement states that work created by the designer, or employee, while under employment belongs to the employer of the designer. The copyright belongs to the company. Even though credit may be given to the designer the company still owns the work as if it were theirs. An important fact to remember is that if a work-for-hire agreement is to be put in place it must be in a contract that includes the phrase work-for-hire, and the contract must be signed before any work begins.

If a work-for-hire agreement is not in place or included in a contract before work begins the work belongs to the designer of the work. If the client happens to want to own any of the work created by the designer, the closest kind of agreement to a work-for-hire they could get is an assignment. This agreement assigns ownership of the work over to the client or employer. They now have rights to the work as in a work-for-hire agreement. The difference is the duration of the assignment, which lasts 35 years. After 35 years the designer can own their work again.

Two other kinds of agreements that should be considered to be put in a contract include nondisclosure and noncompete agreements. These agreements help protect the privacy of information. A nondisclosure agreement is a contract that states certain information must be kept in confidence between a designer and a client. A noncompete agreement is an agreement between the employer and the employee that states if an employee should leave one company they are not to go to work for a competing company, and they are not to reveal any information about their previous company to their current company.

An example of a nondisclosure violation would be if a client reveals their trade partners to a designer, and then the designer reveals that information to one of their client’s trade partners. An example of a noncompete violation would be if an employer left the company they were working for, went to work for a new company that is in completion of their old one, and revealed confidential information such as  information about their previous employer's operations or trade secrets, or sensitive information such as customer/client lists, business practices, upcoming products, and marketing plans.