HI Christine, and all
You most definitely have the right to retain copyright in the report, and you also have the right to sell the copyright in the report to anyone you think fit - not that I'd advise doing this! More sensibly, whether you retain copyright or not you have the moral right to be acknowledged as the author of the report. This right has to be asserted, and so in most published books you will see on the flyleaf a paragraph to the effect that "The right of <insert author's name here> to be identified as the author of the work has been asserted by him(or her) in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988". This basically means that your client is obliged to remember who wrote the report and to acknowledge your authorship.
As copyright is yours to dispose of what happens to it is a matter of negotiation between you and your client, and the whole issue of intellectual property rights should be covered by whatever contract you negotiate between you. A client may seek to insist that your contract is subject to their standard terms of contract, but they are not entitled in law to insist on this. If you really want to keep the copyright in documents you produce for clients then (provided they agree) you can do so, and you can grant them a licence to copy the document in whatever ways you see fit. If you agree to a variation on the client's standard terms and conditions you don't need to employ a lawyer. All you need to do is to write a clear letter to your client setting out the variations you have agreed with them, and get them to acknowledge receipt of the letter.
In the days when I routinely made hands-on exhibits I used to insist that I retained copyright in these, and also in any unbuilt designs that I had suggested to the client This I did to make it quite clear that I was at liberty to sell copies of the exhibits, or ideas, to anyone else I chose. I granted a licence to my customers to allow them to take photos for promotional purpose and whatever, and to make spare parts and this seemed to be quite acceptable - although how many of my customers ever read that far through my terms of business document is open to doubt!
Hope this helps
Cheers
Richard.
Richard Ellam
L M Interactive
Science Shows and Hands-On Stuff
On 15 Oct 2010, at 14:08, Christine Chadwick wrote:
Dear GEM
I’m involved in preparing a strategy for a city council and have a query about copyright. As the authors, do we have the right to retain copyright? As long as we add that the commissioning body, i.e. the council, has the right to use the document for the purpose for which it was intended? Also in terms of reproduction of the document or parts of the document, have we the right to say that this is permitted provided authorship is acknowledged?
Many thanks
Chris
Chris Chadwick Consultancy
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