The rule of thumb is: "If you created it, you own it". But what about employees, sub-contractors, outsourced parties and partners? Who owns the intellectual property (IP) rights in these cases?

The Creator-Owner Rule

• In general, Singapore law says creators own the IP unless there are legislative provisions or contractual agreements stating otherwise.

• There are some exceptions to the rule, for instance, employee inventions and commissioned works.

Employees

• Generally, employers own the intellectual property created by their employees in the course of their work unless there is an agreement stating otherwise.

• In determining "course of work", the Courts may look at the following:
  
  
  • Was the IP created while the employee was carrying out his duties?
    
    
  • Did the employee use the employer's resources to create the IP?
    
    
  • Was the IP created during normal working hours?
    

• To illustrate, the owner of a newspaper or magazine is entitled to the copyright in an author's work, created during employment or apprenticeship, for the purpose of publication or reproduction.
  

• If employees know that all their creations may automatically belong to the company, they may be discouraged from innovating. As an employer, you may change their mindset by establishing a reward system for IP efforts.

Contractors And Outsourced Parties

• When your business commissions a work to be done by contractors or outsourced parties, the IP rights connected to that work belong to the business in certain cases.
  
  
• Where the work involved is a photograph, a painting, a portrait or an engraving, the commissioner will be the copyright owner rather than the creator.
  
  
  • For example, you hire a photographer to take photos for your brochure. The copyright relating to those photographs will belong to your business and not the photographer.
    
    
• However, under the copyright regime, if the commissioned work is required for a particular purpose, that purpose has to be communicated by the commissioner to the author.
  
  
  • The author is entitled to prevent the commissioner from doing any act outside the stated purpose.
    
    
  • For instance, if you commissioned a photograph to be used in an advertisement, you may not be able to use it for an exhibition.

Partners And Joint Ownership

• Quite often, businesses get together and create something together. The IP is a result of the collaboration. 

• Stating that the IP shall be owned jointly may become complicated later. Joint ownership may mean that two or more parties hold similar rights concurrently. And the term "Joint Ownership" may have different legal meanings for trade marks, patents, registered designs and copyright.
  
  
• It is always best to have a contrac