A Logo Somebody Else Designed

Paying is not owning

The assumption is that commissioning a logo and paying the invoice makes it yours.

In Canada, copyright in a commissioned work generally belongs to the person who created it unless there is a written assignment saying otherwise.

What you usually receive by default is permission to use it, on whatever terms were agreed, which may be narrower than you assumed.

That is a general description rather than legal advice, and the specifics depend on the agreement, which is exactly the point: most small businesses have no agreement at all.

Why it rarely causes trouble

Worth saying plainly, because the risk is real and modest.

The overwhelming majority of these arrangements never produce a dispute. The designer intended you to use it, you use it, and nobody thinks about it again.

Problems arise at specific moments rather than generally: when you want to modify it, when you register a trademark, when you sell the business, or when the relationship with the designer ends badly.

Which means this is worth twenty minutes of paperwork at the start rather than anxiety afterwards.

The practical version of the problem

• Source files you never received.
• A designer who has stopped responding.
• Fonts you are not licensed to use.
• No written record of what you may do with it.
• A modification you cannot make without them.

The first is what actually bites. A logo supplied only as a small image file cannot be scaled for signage, recoloured, or adapted, and every future supplier will ask for something you do not have.

What to ask for

At the point of engagement, in the email that agrees the work.

A written assignment of copyright, or at minimum a broad written licence covering any use in your business including modification.

The editable source files, in the format the designer worked in.

Scalable versions, ordinary image files, a one-colour version, and a version for dark backgrounds.

The names of any typefaces used, and confirmation of whether you are licensed to use them or whether the licence was theirs.

A short note of the colour codes for screen and for print.

That list costs a designer very little and is the difference between an asset and a picture.

A worked example

A business had a logo made eight years earlier and held one image file of it.

When they had a van wrapped, the signwriter needed a scalable version and the file supplied was too small to use.

The original designer had left the industry and did not respond.

They paid somebody to redraw the logo from the image, which cost more than the original had, and the result was close rather than identical.

Anybody comparing the van against older printed material could see the difference.

Their conclusion was that the file, rather than the rights, had been the thing they should have insisted on.

If you already have no agreement

The retrospective fix, which is easier than it sounds.

Write to the designer, cordially, saying you are tidying your records and asking them to confirm in writing that you may use and modify the logo without restriction, and asking for the source files.

Most designers agree without hesitation, since it costs them nothing and the relationship is usually fine.

Do it while you can still find them, which is the whole reason for doing it now rather than when you need it.

Where they cannot be found, you are in the position of having an implied licence to use what you commissioned, and the practical risk of continuing to use it is low.

The larger practical problem in that case is still the missing files.

Freelancers, agencies and staff differ

Because the default position is not the same in each case.

Work created by an employee in the course of their employment generally belongs to the employer, which is the one case where the default favours the business.

A freelancer or an agency is a contractor, and the default runs the other way unless assigned.

Cheap online logo services have their own terms, which vary considerably: some transfer full rights, some grant a limited licence, and some sell the same mark to more than one buyer.

Read what you agreed to on those platforms, since the terms are the whole of the arrangement and there is nobody to negotiate with afterwards.

The same applies beyond logos

Worth extending, since the logo is the case people think about.

Website designs, illustrations, photographs, video, and written copy all follow the same principle.

A photographer engaged for a shoot retains copyright and grants a licence, frequently limited by time or by medium.

A web designer's templates and code may be licensed rather than transferred, which matters if you change supplier.

Ask the same two questions of every creative engagement: what may we do with this, and will we receive the working files.

Store the files where the business can find them

The step that makes the rest worthwhile, and it is routinely skipped.

Source files emailed to one person's address, sitting in a downloads folder on a laptop that gets replaced, are lost as surely as if they were never supplied.

Put them in shared business storage, in a folder named so somebody else would find it, alongside the colour codes and typeface names.

Include the original email or agreement in the same place, since that is the record of what you may do with them.

Anybody who has taken over a business and found no logo files anywhere will recognise why this belongs in the same task rather than a later one.

The counter-case

This can be over-lawyered.

A small business commissioning a logo for a few hundred dollars does not need a contract drafted, and asking for one may cost more than the work.

An email confirming that copyright is assigned and source files will be supplied is sufficient for the great majority of arrangements.

There is also a version where a business demands full rights aggressively and a good designer declines to work with them, which is a poor trade over a risk that rarely materialises.

Ask politely, in writing, at the start, and get the files. That covers nearly everything.

What to ask for

1. Written assignment or a broad licence.
2. Editable source files.
3. Scalable and ordinary formats.
4. One-colour and dark-background versions.
5. Typeface names and who holds the licence.
6. Colour codes for screen and print.
7. Ask retrospectively if you never did.

Step seven is worth doing this week rather than eventually, since the whole exercise depends on the designer still being findable.

Whether to commission one at all is covered in a logo made in an afternoon.

Frequently asked questions

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.