Who owns the work when you hire a freelancer?

Under US copyright law, the creator of a work owns the copyright from the moment of creation. When an employee creates work within the scope of employment, it is a work made for hire and the employer owns it automatically. Independent contractors are different: their work is a work made for hire only if it falls into one of nine specifically enumerated categories and there is a signed written agreement saying so. Most commissioned business work, including logos, websites, software, and marketing materials, does not fit those categories, which means the default is that the freelancer retains ownership and the client receives an implied license to use the deliverable for its intended purpose.

The practical consequences surface later. A company that commissioned a logo without an assignment may be unable to register a trademark cleanly, modify the design, or transfer the asset in an acquisition without going back to the designer. Software developed without an assignment can create a genuine obstacle during due diligence, which is one of the more common issues that surfaces when a small company is acquired. Photographers and illustrators frequently retain rights deliberately and license specific uses, which is legitimate and standard practice in those fields, so the client's job is to know which arrangement they are buying.

The fix is a written assignment clause in the contract, executed before or at the start of the engagement, transferring all right, title, and interest in the deliverables to the client upon payment, typically paired with a work-made-for-hire recital as a backstop where applicable. From the freelancer's side, the same clause is worth negotiating: a full assignment is more valuable than a license and should be priced accordingly, and retaining the right to display the work in a portfolio is a reasonable carve-out to request. Note also that pre-existing tools, code libraries, and templates a contractor brings to the job are usually excluded from assignment and licensed instead, which is normal and should be stated explicitly rather than left ambiguous.