IP ownership and licensing

Work and deliverables

We trace creation and acquisition records, review assignments and licences, and draft the agreed ownership or permission terms. The work distinguishes background IP, project deliverables and third-party materials.

1. Define the assets and intended uses covered by the assignment.
2. Trace the available creation, acquisition and permission records.
3. Identify gaps between the proposed business use and documented rights.
4. Prepare the expressly agreed assignment or licence terms and handover actions.

The asset schedule should separate confirmed documentation from assumptions and missing evidence. Possession of a file is not used as a substitute for examining the relevant rights records.

Documents for the initial assessment

• Asset list
• creator agreements
• licence terms
• development contracts
• assignment records
• intended distribution
• existing disputes.

Identify creators, commissioning parties and prior versions, along with materials brought into a project from outside. For licensed assets, include schedules, restrictions and amendments rather than only a purchase receipt. Describe the intended users, territory, distribution model and whether modifications are planned.

An issue to settle before committing

A licence to use software internally may not permit embedding it in a customer product. Read the permitted use against the actual business model.

For example, a customer project may combine a supplier’s reusable tool, newly created work and third-party components. Identify each layer so the commercial agreement can address delivery and permissions without describing every component as newly owned by the customer.

Mandate and fees

Patentability, infringement opinions, technical code scanning and international registration require separate specialist scope.

Legal work uses a written matter-specific proposal. Do not send confidential documents through the public form; begin with a brief description and any material date.

The deliverables can include a rights-evidence map, gap list and agreed draft documents. Technical provenance checks, third-party consents and disputed ownership are separate unless included. Handover identifies which assets and versions were assessed and the changes in use that would require another review.