Who owns the work? IP clauses for freelancers

The intellectual property clause decides who owns what you make, from when, and what you can still use afterwards. Four things to check.

Updated 21 October 2026. General information, not legal advice.

Assignment or licence

An assignment transfers ownership: the client owns the work, and you keep no rights unless the contract gives some back. A licence lets the client use the work in agreed ways while you stay the owner. Clients usually want an assignment of the final deliverables, and that is often fair. The details below are where it goes wrong.

Without a written agreement, the person who creates a work usually owns the copyright, even when a client paid for it. The rules differ by country: in the US, for example, "work made for hire" covers independent contractors only in limited cases with a written agreement, in some European countries authors keep moral rights that cannot be fully signed away, and in Germany and Austria copyright itself cannot be transferred at all: the client gets exclusive rights of use instead, which a well-written clause spells out.

1. When ownership passes

If ownership passes on creation or delivery, an unpaid client still owns your work. Tie the transfer to payment.

2. Your pre-existing materials

Code libraries, templates, fonts you licensed, design systems, methods: you used them before this client and will use them after. Keep them, and give the client a licence to use them as part of the deliverables.

3. Drafts and rejected work

A broad clause can cover every sketch, concept and unused option. Limit the assignment to the final deliverables the client accepts and pays for.

4. Your portfolio

Ask for the right to show the work in your portfolio once it is public, unless the project is confidential. If it is confidential, agree what you may say about it, such as the client's name or the type of work.

Third-party materials

Stock photos, fonts and open-source code come with their own licences. Say who buys them and that their licence terms apply, so you are not promising rights you cannot give.

This guide is general information, not legal advice. Rules differ between countries and states, and a clause that is common in one place can be unenforceable in another. For a high-stakes contract, ask a lawyer where you or your client are based.