Copyright agreement

This copyright agreement is concerned with the assignment and licensing of copyright and other unregistered intellectual property rights in work and materials. An assignment is a transfer of ownership of the rights, whereas a licence is grant of a right to do some defined act or acts in relation to the protected work.

The assignment and licensing provisions are organised using the idea of deliverables. These are particular works and materials that the assignor has delivered or must deliver to the assignee. The rights in the deliverables are split into four categories: rights to be assigned; rights to be licensed; third party rights; and assignee rights. Each category of rights is subject to different treatment. If there are no third party rights or assignee rights in the deliverables, the provision relating to these rights can easily be removed.

The copyright agreement incorporates provisions regarding the charges payable with respect to the assignment and licence. In this kind of agreement, charges will usually be one-off rather than periodic. However, the agreement can be adapted for either. If you remove the payment provisions, you must ensure that there is some form of consideration (i.e. quid pro quo), so that the agreement meets the English law criteria for an enforceable contract.

Under the default drafting, the term of the copyright licence is the same as the term of the agreement. In other words, if the agreement is terminated, the licence will be terminated. However, you may wish to amend the agreement so that the licence can continue beyond termination of the agreement.

If you are looking for a document that only transfers copyright, see our assignment of copyright template; similarly, if you are looking for a document that only licenses copyright, see our licence of copyright template.

In some ways, this document is similar to our standard consultancy agreement, but it does not include any provisions relating to the supply of services: it is exclusively concerned with the handling of intellectual property rights.

Ask about this document

Copyright agreement contents

Definitions: definitions.
Term: commencement of term; end of term.
Deliverables: acknowledgement of delivery of deliverables; obligation and timetable for delivery of deliverables; deliverables warranties (no acceptance procedure).
Intellectual Property Rights: assignment of intellectual property rights in assigned deliverables; licence to use licensed deliverables; licensing of third party materials; waiver of moral rights in deliverables; further assurance (intellectual property).
Consideration: consideration benefiting first party.
Charges and payments: obligation to pay charges; amounts inclusive or exclusive of VAT; issue of invoices; time for payment of charges following invoice; payment methods; interest on late payments; interest on late payments.
No implied warranties: exclusion of implied warranties and representations.
Limitations and exclusions of liability: caveats to limits of liability; interpretation of limits of liability; no liability for force majeure; no liability for loss of profits; no liability for loss of revenue; no liability for loss of use; no liability for loss of opportunities; no liability for loss of data or software; no liability for consequential loss; aggregate liability cap upon services contract.
Termination: termination without cause by first party; termination without cause by second party; termination upon breach; termination upon insolvency; termination upon non-payment.
Effects of termination: surviving provisions upon termination; termination does not affect accrued rights; licensed deliverables on contract termination; licensed deliverables copies on contract termination.
Notices: methods and deemed receipt of contractual notices; contact details for contractual notices; substitute contact details for notices.
General: no waiver; severability; variation written and signed; no assignment etc without written consent unless specified otherwise; no third party rights; entire agreement; governing law; exclusive jurisdiction.

SCHEDULE 1 (COPYRIGHT PARTICULARS)

Specification of Deliverables: specification of deliverables and rights prompt.
Timetable: timetable prompt.
Assignee
Materials: second party materials prompt.
Financial provisions: financial provisions prompt.

Copyright agreement document editor preview

This is a shortened preview of the editor interface; once you create your instance you'll be able to edit the full document in our online editor.

This is a shortened preview of the DOCX output; once you create your instance you'll be able to download the full document in PDF, HTML, RTF and/or DOCX (Microsoft Word) format.

Which licence should I choose?

Version	1.1
First published	23 Oct 2018
Last updated	26 Jan 2021
Law	English law and EU law
Language	English (UK)
^†Word count	4,661
^†Template pages	10

† These figures are approximations.

	Free licence	Standard licence	Extended licence	Professional licence
Number of document instances	1	1	5	25
Number of websites or digital products	1	1	5	25
Sub-licences permitted	None	1	5	25
Document licence period	No expiry	No expiry	No expiry	No expiry
Credit for Docular	Yes	No	No	No

Number of document instances

Document templates are the products available for sale on this website; whereas document instances are "clones" of the templates, which you can edit using Docular's online editor and export from the website.

We will update our document templates from time to time, but this will not affect your document instances. When you create a document instance, it will be based upon the latest version of the underlying document template at the time of creation of the instance, irrespective of your date of purchase.

You can save your document instance to our servers at any time, and return to editing later. Once you are happy with your editing, you can export the document and save it to your computer.

Number of websites or digital products

The licences include numerical limits upon: (a) the number of websites (including cloud services) on which documents may be published; and (b) the number of digital products (such as software programs) with which documents may be distributed.

Sub-licences permitted

All of our paid licences allow you to sub-license to a client of yours the right to use a document created using Docular.

When you sub-license that right, it becomes attached to the particular client. The number of sub-licences you may grant is numerically limited and, again, the limitation corresponds to the document instance limitation.

Document licence period

This is the period of the licence to use documents created using and exported from the Docular online editor. In short, the licences do not expire. There are no ongoing licence fees.

Credit for Docular

Each free template includes a textual credit for Docular (eg "this document was created using Docular") and you must retain that credit in all versions of the document.

Legal T&Cs

For full details of the licensing rules governing the use of Docular templates, instances and exports, see our terms and conditions.

Copyright agreement

Copyright agreement contents

Related documents