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Contract trap · Vendor and freelance

Overbroad IP assignment

The client takes ownership of everything the freelancer creates — including own-time and unrelated work, pre-existing libraries/templates ('Background IP'), future 'trailing' inventions and a blanket waiver of moral rights — with no separate consideration, and bans showing the work in a portfolio or naming the client while freely using the freelancer's name.

Severity
Serious
How often it turns up
Common
Holds up?
Depends where you are
Clause phrases
23

What it looks like in a contract

Redline matches these phrases against your document verbatim. Drafters rarely invent new wording — they copy it, which is why the same sentences turn up across unrelated contracts.

In English-language contracts

  • all right, title and interest
  • work made for hire
  • conceived, developed or reduced to practice
  • whether or not related to the business of the Company
  • Prior Inventions
  • hereby irrevocably assigns
  • waives all moral rights
  • Background IP
  • power of attorney to execute
  • shall not display the work in any portfolio
  • shall not disclose that Contractor performed services for Client
  • Client may use Contractor's name and likeness

In Russian-language contracts

  • исключительное право в полном объеме
  • на все результаты интеллектуальной деятельности
  • созданные в период действия договора
  • вне зависимости от связи с предметом договора
  • отказывается от права на имя
  • без выплаты дополнительного вознаграждения
  • включая ранее созданные
  • служебное произведение
  • не вправе размещать результаты в портфолио
  • не вправе указывать Заказчика в качестве клиента
  • использовать изображение и имя Исполнителя

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Why it bites

You can lose the reusable code, templates and know-how your business runs on and face infringement claims from a former client for re-using your own tools; portfolio rights are a freelancer's main sales asset; in RU a free assignment between commercial parties is void (ст. 1234 п. 3.1 ГК) and waiver of authorship is void (ст. 1265), but the clause still works as leverage.

Is it enforceable where you are

The same clause can be routine in one country and void in another. What follows is what the law says where you are — not advice on your particular contract.

B2B terms get much less protection: in the UK, UCTA 1977 s.3 tests standard terms for reasonableness; in the EU, the Late Payment Directive 2011/7 caps payment terms and P2B Regulation 2019/1150 applies to platforms.

United States

Assignments enforceable, but 'work made for hire' for a commissioned work exists only for 9 statutory categories with a signed writing (17 U.S.C. 101; CCNV v. Reid 1989) — software/design need a real assignment; own-time invention grabs void in CA (Labor Code 2870), WA, IL, MN, DE, KS, NC, UT, NV, NJ, NY (Labor Law 203-f, 2023); CA Labor Code 3351.5(c): 'work for hire' language can make a contractor an employee for workers'-comp; portfolio display without permission is infringement, publicity clauses are the required consent.

  • Cited
  • 17 U.S.C. 101
  • CCNV v. Reid

European Union

Freelancer keeps copyright unless assigned; moral rights inalienable in France and only narrowly waivable in Germany; DSM Directive 2019/790 Arts 18-22 (appropriate remuneration, bestseller adjustment, revocation for non-use) cannot be removed by contract in most Member States.

  • Cited
  • Directive 2019/790

United Kingdom

Commissioned work: freelancer is first owner (CDPA s.11) unless assigned in signed writing; moral rights waivable in writing (CDPA s.87), attribution must be asserted (s.78); Patents Act 1977 s.42: terms diminishing an employee's invention rights unenforceable.

  • Cited
  • CDPA s.11
  • CDPA s.87
  • Patents Act 1977

Russia

По умолчанию исключительное право на произведение по заказу принадлежит заказчику (ст. 1296 ГК), служебное — работодателю (ст. 1295); отчуждение должно быть возмездным, безвозмездное между коммерческими субъектами не допускается (ст. 1234 п. 3, 3.1); отказ от права авторства и права на имя ничтожен (ст. 1265), но автор может согласиться на анонимное использование; показ в портфолио без лицензии — нарушение (исключения ст. 1274 узкие).

  • Cited
  • ст. 1234 п. 3
  • ст. 1265
  • ст. 1274
  • ст. 1295
  • ст. 1296 ГК

Where this has actually happened

Regulator actions, court rulings and the contracts they were fought over.

  • Community for Creative Non-Violence v. Reid, 490 U.S. 730 (1989) — sculptor, not commissioning party, owned commissioned work
  • California Labor Code §2870 (own-time invention assignment unenforceable)
  • New York Labor Law §203-f (2023)

What to do

In order, from the thing that takes a minute to the thing that takes a letter.

  1. Narrow the assignment to Deliverables created and paid for under this SOW
  2. Schedule Prior Inventions/Background IP that you keep and license non-exclusively as embedded in Deliverables
  3. Delete 'whether or not related to the business' and 'at any time during the term'
  4. Make assignment effective on full payment
  5. Add a mutual, revocable-on-notice portfolio/credit right for finished public work
  6. RU: separate line for вознаграждение за отчуждение and keep право на имя.

Check your own document

Traps that travel with it

Drafters who use one of these usually use several.

79 traps · 1789 verbatim clause phrases