Re: copyright in legal documents

On Mon, 25 Oct 1999, Mike Phillips <radiolawyer[_at_]hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> A new client asked me a question this morning that has been asked
> many times, but I've never had to answer it before. (It's an
> academic
> question.)
>
> When a client pays an attorney to draft a contract, who owns the
> copyright to the contract?

If you are an employee, and nothing is in writing, then the employer. If you are a contractor, and nothing in writing, then the attorney. You just have to figure out if it is a work for hire. Of course, a written agreement can come to other arrangements, if both parties do so in contract.

There may be an issue of attorney client priv. that prevents you from ever using the agreement again, but the question you posed was just relative to copyright.

Please note this is not legal advice, see an attorney before relying on who owns the copyright in any specific work. The laws are different from country to country, and are different depending on when the agreement was drafted, even within the US. If the question has serious consequences, never rely on comments made on the web, always see an attorney.

Tom Workman
<tworkman[_at_]erols.com> Received on Mon Oct 25 1999 - 16:41:22 GMT