Ownership

Hepworth Browne offers a range of services all aimed at helping you establish, change and record ownership of all the work and intellectual property produced by your company, its employees and other businesses. 

Some of the questions we have helped our clients answer are:
  • One of my employees invented this in his own time - does my company own the invention?
  • We really like the packaging design created by an external agency but we want to move agency - can we still use the design?
  • An external agency came up with a great strapline in a pitch and we want to use it but we aren’t going to use the agency. Can we use the strapline?
  • One of our partners is leaving the company and he wants to take his invention with him. Can he? Where do we stand?
  • Do I need to acknowledge authorship when I use someone else’s work?
 
We provide a range of ownership services but the majority fall into the following four categories:
 
Ownership Audit: We take an in-depth look at your business, including your external and internal contracts and provide you with a clear picture of who owns what and what this means for your business in the future. 
 
Copyright Deposit Service: Copyright cases are not particularly easy to prosecute and can be expensive. In any copyright case it is essential to prove when the copyright work was created. It is best to get an independent record of the date of creation. This can be done by using a deposit system like that offered by Hepworth Browne. We will record your work on our secure intellectual property management database and provide you with a formal filing report with a unique case reference and if required a filing report.
 
Ownership Disputes: If you already know you may have an issue with establishing or changing ownership we can provide you with specialist advice from a qualified professional.
 
Recording and Changing Ownership: Detailed or basic assignments for all types of work or intellectual property. We can also provide a tailored standard assignment document for you to use with external agencies in the future.
 
For more information about these services please contact Sue Bradley on +44 (0)845 270 4900 or by email at seb@hepworthbrowne.com