Jennifer Corio of Cobalt Designworks sent this article from the DuBoff Law Group for us to consider.
Many of our clients have been shocked to discover that the rights they believed they had in their website URLs and designs were, in fact, owned by their website developers.
Unless an appropriate contract is entered into between your company and your website developer, you may find that the website designer your company hired to assist in purchasing a URL and establishing a web presence, rather than your company, owns the domain name. Further, it is important to realize that when an independent contractor is hired to design your company’s website, that independent contractor will own the copyright in the design unless you have a written agreement providing otherwise.
As you might imagine, problems can arise when your company desires to terminate its relationship with the website developer, since the website developer may then refuse to assign the URL to your company and may assert its copyright in the website design as well as any logos and other material developed by it for your company. This could result in your company being required to retain the services of the developer it no longer desires to work with, pay the website developer an exorbitant fee to purchase the rights you believed your company already owned, or start all over, with a new URL and website design, which could result in loss of goodwill and loss of sales.
It is, therefore, important for you to be sure that you have a written contract with your website developer making clear that your company owns the URL and will be listed as the registrant, and that the website designer is assigning your company all intellectual property rights in the website, including but not limited to the copyright. Please contact our firm if you need assistance with drafting such a contract, or reviewing a contract provided to you by the developer.
In a future issue, we will discuss some other important web-related legal doctrines.