: Buying a logo from a graphic designer: who owns the copyright? I am working with a graphic designer for a new logo. They are offering the logo, but have said there will be parameters put

@Carla748

Much depends on the contract and the price paid for the work product/rights.

Our studio typically retains the copyrights, the client can register a trademark. Something we openly recommend.

The reasons vary but the reality is when a client or anyone else (say for example a printer) modifies the work/product artistic and legal problems develop.

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@Shelley591

For logo work, no, this is not common. A graphic designer understands that a company needs to own their visual identity outright including with that to modify it in the future as they see fit. As others have stated, it's not necessarily a good idea but it absolutely should be within your rights as the owner of said logo.

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@Kimberly620

It is common for many designers to do this. If you only paid a couple hundred dollars or less, you might only be paying for the right to use their design instead of for the files themselves. Check your design contract if you have one to see what it says.

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@Vandalay110

Depends on your contract, graphic designers charge different prices for different rights to their work. What you are asking for is full transfer of rights, including all intelectual and moral rights.

This is the sort of thing you need to have negotiated before you begin the job because it affects how the job is executed and whether or not the designer will bother to take the job or not.

In essence this boils down to a few things:


Why would you want to even begin doing that
You're essentially asking the designer to dissasociate themselves from the design. The designer can no longer use you as a reference. This may be more than enough for a designer not to bother as you do not grow his chances of getting new work.
In fact you're not buying a logo you're buying either a template system for a family of logos or your buying a tutorial into logo design and should be charged appropriately.

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