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?

Assuming you are an attorney in private practice and not an employee of the client, which would be the case, say, with an in-house corporate attorney, and assuming that the contract is copyrightable subject matter, then you are the owner of the copyright in the contract. The "work made for hire" doctrine (which transfers ownership/authorship of the work to the employer through a legal fiction) applies only to works made by an employee within the scope of his or her employment, not to works made by an independent contractor. The client can acquire the copyright only through your execution of an assignment of that copyright. The client may also have an implied license of the copyright for certain limited uses.

There are certain problems indigenous to the claim of copyright in legal documents such as contracts. This matter has been discussed in a relatively recent thread on this list, and you may want to check the archives for that discussion.

Bernard Gerdelman
Paule, Camazine & Blumenthal, P.C.
165 N. Meramec, 6th Floor
Clayton, MO 63105
(314)727-2266
bgerdelman[_at_]pcblawfirm.com
<attorney[_at_]i1.net> Received on Mon Oct 25 1999 - 18:53:19 GMT