Important Logo Question
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- 16 Responses
- jobhall
Hello,
I did a logo and a bunch of other graphic design work for a company a few years ago and now the company is blowing up (in popularity). They paid me for my work but I still legally own the logo. Now they want me to sign over my copyright of that logo to them.
Should I charge them for the logo priviledges or should I just sign the papers since they already paid me?
- rasko40
I want to give you a professional answer but I have this problem about being horrendously pissed, my advice would be to ask the qestion again on monday morning.
- Donvitoviti0
You are smart for stil having the copyright. Because of this reason.. When a company goes big.. the identity is worth alot.
I would charge a buy out fee. in the thousands.
- rasko40
thats what he says, and he's right.
- Sydney0
no way, in my opinion you got paid for what they wanted you to do, how is it still owned by you if you did it for them and you got paid?
- DrSatan0
Be a bastard and try to get more money out of it.. Wont hurt them and it will help you.
...dr.Satan
- SoulFly0
You can still keep your copyright of your artwork, even if it is a logo. I know for a fact that "Roadrunner" is one of the most used characters liscensed for companies to use as their logo.
In your case, the company paid for an outside service which is the designer to create artwork which they obviously agreed on the copyright issue. The company didn't buy the logo, reason why now that they are big they want him go sign ownership.
I still wouldn't charge anything, and just hope they call you for other jobs.
- ribit0
This sounds really weird. What sort of company lets an outside contractor hold the copyright to their logo? (And is it now a registered trademark?)
Was there a specific agreement for you to hold the copyright on the logo?
- jimeeboy510
Depending on the relationship I have with them, I probably wouldnt ask for more, after the fact that they became successful. It was a decision you made when you did the job that counts. If you think they will do really well, you should have charged more to begin with. If you do charge a buy out fee, just make sure its not over estimated or you might look bad and lose a referral.
Its priceless to use it in your portfolio!
BTW, can you post the logo? All this hype about it makes me curious to see your work.
- REDWOOD0
Yeah jimeeboy is right.
But you could make a litle change to the logo and resell it to the company for more money. But you can't ask more money for being succesful. Atleast i don't pay more money for using my pc mor frequently.
- silentseven0
I agree with jimeeboy too. But what you can do is resign another contract and put geographic rights and time specific limitations on it as well. I had the same issue come up about 2 years ago, created a logo, handed it over but transferred only specific geographic rights that if it was used outside the area there would have to be a resiign of the contract and it would result in forfieture of the logo by the client . They ended up resigning antoher contract which gave them more rights but not all of them, also is the logo copyrighted ? But if you are on good terms i would approach it very cautiously. If you can get a hold of the GAG handbook and go through the section of rights transferred its a grey area, even better if you have a friend who is a intellectual property attorney or know of one i would consult them. Bottom line is what are you wiling to go through...
- JohnR0
I hate to be the person who mentions this, but does anyone know if the AIGA says anything about this in their ethics book thingy?
- jobhall0
Anybody have any more advice? I am still stuck between the two options.
- Sydney0
Can you post the logo and company name up like everyone is asking, were curiouse to see it.
- sparker0
as long as the contract states you retain ownership and only license the logo to the company, then it is perfectly legal to charge more if they want ownership.
this is what 'licensing' is.
but, it has to be in the contract...otherwise, it can be argued they own the rights already.
- Bunkum0
Response to doubters: I thought that according to current copyright laws any designer owns the copyright to their own designs automatically so this guy is correct to hold onto it.
I reckon you should offer them a style guide and change for that. If you think you will be doing more work for them be lax, otherwise is up to your personal descretion...
- drake0
what would trump do?