Re: copyright in legal documents

From: <lpickering[_at_]lowenstein.com>
Date: Fri, 29 Oct 1999 18:11:03 -0400

On Thu, 28 Oct 1999, David Swarbrick <david[_at_]swarb.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>
> 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?
>
> Isn't the real question whether the solicitor could ever untangle which
> bits of the contract are his, and which came from this precedent and
> which from another.
>
> Could any lawyer give good title to any of his contracts?

Aside from untangling the "derivative work" from past models or presendents, I believe that under US Copyright law, the lawyer owns the copyright (it's not a "work for hire"), but attorney-client privilege probably prevents copying the contract with its particuler facts -- the form itself, however, belongs to the lawyer. Sticky issue -- who is there to advise the client of that and suggest that he negotiate for ownership?...

Linda Pickering
Lowenstein Sandler PC
Roseland, NJ
<lpickering[_at_]lowenstein.com>

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Thank you. Received on Fri Oct 29 1999 - 22:13:22 GMT