Can I assign my copyright?

Yes, you can assign your copyright to another party. This must always be done in writing, in a deed signed by you as the assigning party. Without a written record the assignment is not valid.

What does an assignment of copyright involve?

With a full assignment of copyright you transfer your rights in a work to someone else by means of a written deed. That other person then obtains the right to exploit, reproduce or adapt the work. You lose those rights, apart from your moral rights such as the right to be named as the author. You can also choose to assign only part of your copyright. For instance the right to exploit the work but not the right to adapt it.

What are the conditions for having copyright?

For copyright protection your work must meet three requirements: it must be sufficiently creative (that threshold is met quickly), it must be original (not literally copied from someone else), and it must be perceptible (recorded in some form). You do not have to register your copyright - it arises automatically on creation.

What is the difference between an assignment and a licence?

With an assignment you transfer your copyright to the acquiring party. As the assigning party you then no longer hold the copyright; the acquiring party holds it after the assignment. With a licence you remain the owner and only give permission for particular use. A licence can be terminated or limited; an assignment is in principle definitive.

Is a licence transferable to third parties?

Only if you expressly agree that. Without an arrangement on this point, the licensee may not resell or transfer the licence.

Which forms of assignment exist?

There are various forms of assignment. You are entirely free to choose what you do and do not want to assign. Copyright can be divided up indefinitely. You can choose to assign all rights at once (a full assignment). But you can equally choose to retain certain rights (a partial assignment). Think for instance of an assignment of rights for particular countries, or only an assignment covering exploitation of the work but not adaptation of it, or only an assignment for particular forms of exploitation (film yes, podcast or book no, and so on). So exactly what you assign is entirely up to you - as long as you record it clearly.

What is an assignment clause?

An assignment clause is a sentence - or a few sentences - in a wider contract stating that the copyright in the work is assigned. This happens regularly in commission agreements between a freelancer and their client, for example. Such a clause might state that the freelancer assigns the copyright in the design, logo or photograph developed to order. Do note: a clause like this must also be in writing. Oral arrangements about the assignment of copyright are not legally valid and therefore have no effect.

What belongs in an agreement for the assignment of copyright?

At the very least: a description of the work, which rights you are assigning, for which territory, for what period, and what payment is being made in return. The more specific, the better.

How do you draw up an agreement for the assignment of copyright?

A deed of assignment of copyright should as a minimum set out: a description of the work, which rights you are assigning, for which territory, for what period, and what payment is being made in return. We can draw up such a deed for you or review an existing agreement.

How do I assign other intellectual property, such as a trade mark?

The assignment of trade marks or designs must be registered with the relevant office (such as the Benelux Office for Intellectual Property for the Benelux). Without registration the assignment is not valid against third parties. This works differently from copyright, where no registration is needed.

Assigning copyright: what should you watch out for?

Are you considering assigning your copyright? This article sets out all the ins and outs, the do’s and don’ts. It also explains what we can do for you as copyright lawyers.

What is an assignment of copyright?

To determine whether an assignment of copyright is necessary and worthwhile, it first has to be established whether there is any copyright at all.

Something is protected by copyright where it is sufficiently creative and original. In legal terms it has its own original character.

Sufficient creativity is reached quickly. For the purposes of the Copyright Act you certainly do not have to be Frida Kahlo. The European Court has held that a summary of twelve words was already creative enough to qualify for copyright protection.
What the maker has created must also be original. That means it must not be too literal a copy of someone else’s work.
Alongside these two requirements there is a third condition: the work must be perceptible. An idea in your head is not protected. Only once you record it, on paper, digitally or in another form, does copyright protection arise. You do not have to register your copyright anywhere: it arises automatically at the moment of creation.

Where your work meets these requirements, it is protected by copyright and you can assign that copyright. In that case you assign the copyright in that work to another party. As a result, that party then has the right to communicate the work to the public and to reproduce it. The assignor can no longer do so. So where the copyright in a photograph is assigned, you as the acquiring party may exploit that photograph. Where the copyright in the design of a bag is assigned, you may sell that bag and also, for instance, alter the design.

Why assign copyright?

You have copyright assigned so that you can exploit, alter or otherwise bring to market the work in which the copyright subsists.

The reason for an assignment is almost always financial or practical. As a freelance photographer you may not have the budget to distribute your photographs worldwide. Or as a director you have no network to get your film into cinemas. You then assign your rights to a party that does have that, such as a publisher, distributor or production company.

In return you usually receive a one-off fee, an advance on future income, or royalties. Sometimes a mix of the three.

Example 1: A logo for a client

A freelance graphic designer creates a logo and house style through an advertising agency. The agency assigns all the copyright to the end client. That client can then develop, alter or license the logo to a partner organisation without the designer having any further say. The designer receives an agreed sum for this, often a one-off fee in which the assignment is already priced in.

Example 2: Author and publisher

An author assigns all copyright in a novel to a publishing house. The publisher may then print, sell and promote the book. The publisher can also negotiate a translation, have an audiobook recorded, or even sell film rights to a production company.

In most cases it is agreed that the author shares in this. For example: 50 per cent of the proceeds from a film adaptation goes to the author, even though the publisher holds the rights. You record that in the contract by which you assign the copyright.

Example 3: Software by a freelance developer

A company has a bespoke application built by a freelance developer. Without an assignment the developer keeps the copyright in the source code, even though the company paid for it. If the company wants to be free to alter, develop or sell the software, the developer has to assign the copyright in the source code by deed. If that does not happen, the company depends on permission for every change.

Which forms of assignment are there?

With copyright there are basically two flavours: full assignment and partial assignment.

With a full assignment you assign all your rights to the acquiring party. That party may then exploit, alter and resell the work. Legally you have no further say, apart from your moral rights (such as the right to be named).

With a partial assignment you retain certain rights. Copyright is infinitely divisible. You assign, for instance, the right to exploit the work in the Netherlands but not in the rest of Europe. Or you assign the right of exploitation but not the right to make alterations. Or, as a podcast maker, you assign the right to exploit the podcast but not the right to make a book or a film based on it.

Alongside this there is the licence, but strictly speaking that is not an assignment. Under a licence you remain the owner and merely give permission for specific use. More on this below.

The legal requirements for an assignment of copyright

The assignment of copyright is governed by Article 2 of the Dutch Copyright Act (Dutch original), and since 1 January 2026 stricter requirements apply. On that date the Act strengthening author contract law came into force, tightening the maker’s position on assignment and licence. Since then a valid assignment requires two things.

A written agreement to assign. What is new is that not only the transfer but the agreement itself must be in writing. Assigning orally is therefore not possible. No strict formal requirements apply to this agreement: a record by way of an exchange of e-mails can suffice, as long as it is clear who the parties are, when the agreement was reached and what was agreed.
A deed of transfer. The actual assignment takes place by deed, a signed writing, and that requirement remains. The deed must in any event be signed by the assigning party; signature by the recipient is sensible but not required. The agreement and the deed may be combined in a single document.

Note: unlike an exclusive licence, for which the deed requirement was in fact abolished as of 2026, the deed remains necessary for an assignment. An assignment by a stray e-mail, without a signed deed, is therefore not legally valid.

A second important change: since 2026 only those powers pass that are expressly set out in the agreement, or that necessarily follow from the nature of the assignment. Whatever you do not expressly name, you do not assign. That makes a carefully drafted deed more important than ever.

“It is not all or nothing. As the assignor you decide yourself which rights you assign.”

How do you draw up a deed of assignment of copyright?

In a deed of assignment you should set out as specifically as possible which rights you are assigning and on what terms. This provides legal certainty for both parties and can prevent disputes afterwards.

In a deed of assignment you make arrangements about the following subjects at the very least.

1. Specification of the work

The work that is the subject of the assignment must be described with sufficient precision. It can be helpful to include photographs or design drawings of the work in a schedule to the agreement by way of clarification.

2. Specification of the rights being assigned

Make clear exactly which rights you are assigning. It is not all or nothing. As the assignor you decide yourself which rights you assign. You can choose to assign every right, so that the acquiring party can do with the work as it sees fit. But you can also choose to assign only the right to exploit the work, and not the right to make alterations to it.

3. Determine the countries you are assigning for

This too is not all or nothing. You can choose for the rights to be assigned for the whole world, but it can equally be for the Netherlands, the Benelux or Europe alone. That is entirely up to you. In concrete terms it means the acquiring party then only has the right to exploit the work in those countries. This is relevant, for instance, in publishing, where different publishers are assigned rights for different language areas.

4. Duration of the assignment

Determine for what period you are assigning the copyright. That can be the full term of protection, so seventy years after your death. But it can also be for a shorter term: a set number of years, or until a particular date.

Note: are you assigning the rights for a limited period? Then record what happens afterwards. Are the rights assigned back once the term ends? Record this properly, because otherwise you will still have no copyright once the period has expired.

5. Remuneration

Always include in the agreement the fee to be paid for the copyright being assigned. There are various flavours here. You can agree a one-off sum, known as a lump sum. You can also agree a royalty, under which a set percentage of turnover or profit is paid. And you can agree a combination: a fixed fee as well as a royalty.

“Our advice? Simply write down what you mean.”

We draw up your deed or check your contract

We can draw up a deed of assignment of copyright for you. To do so we discuss with you carefully which rights you want to assign, in what way, and what the consequences are. We then record this clearly in a deed, so that a legally valid assignment of copyright comes about.

We can also review copyright agreements for you. We then discuss exactly which rights are being assigned and what the consequences are for you. Where necessary we amend the deed for you.

Common pitfalls and how to avoid them

With assignments of copyright we see a great deal go wrong. That regularly leads to legal disputes and can end up in proceedings before the court. Here are the mistakes we come across regularly, each with a tip for avoiding it.

What we regularly see go wrong is that the deed, the agreement the parties concluded, contains ambiguities.
Something else we often see in our practice is non-lawyers drawing up an agreement themselves and using legal language in it without knowing precisely what it means. The result: a deed full of ambiguities that leads to argument.

Our advice? Simply write down what you mean. Do not use complicated terms such as “exclusivity” or “territorial restrictions” if you do not know what the legal consequences are. Just say: “You may only use the logo in the Netherlands” or “You may not resell this work”.

Better still: have a copyright lawyer look it over. They will check whether what you actually want to agree is also properly secured legally. That saves trouble later.
We also regularly see things forgotten in the deed. It can happen that restrictions are forgotten in relation to the right being assigned, or in relation to territory. This pitfall can be avoided by thinking carefully about exactly what you want in relation to the work, and above all about what you do not want. It is always sensible to discuss the agreement with a lawyer, who can check whether everything that can be included in a deed of assignment has in fact been included.
Another pitfall is that rights are assigned which the assigning party does not hold at all. A tip is therefore, as the acquiring party, to check as far as possible whether the assigning party actually holds the rights. We also recommend always having the assigning party give a warranty and indemnity for this.

Assignment of copyright or a licence?

It is not always necessary to assign your copyright. In some cases a licence is more convenient. Under a licence you retain ownership of your work, but give someone else permission to use it on certain terms.

An example: you are a photographer and a fashion magazine wants to use your photograph in an article. You do not need to assign your copyright. You simply grant a licence: the magazine may publish the photograph once, in the June edition. You remain the owner, and can sell that same photograph to other magazines as well. With an assignment you would lose that possibility.

A question we are often asked: can the licensee resell the licence to someone else?

In principle not. For exclusive and non-exclusive licences alike, the rule is that the licence is only transferable if you expressly agree that in the agreement.

Would you like to know more about licence agreements? We can also advise you on what is most sensible in your situation: an assignment or a licence.

Copyright versus other intellectual property

What falls under intellectual property? Alongside copyright there are other forms of intellectual property such as trade mark law (logos and names), design law (product designs), patent law (inventions) and trade name law.

The assignment of these rights works differently from copyright. For trade marks and designs, for instance, the assignment has to be registered with the trade mark or design office. Would you like to know how to assign other intellectual property? Then get in contact with us.

Need help assigning your copyright?

At Liaise Advocaten we are happy to help. We draw up a deed that records precisely what you want: which rights you assign, on what terms and what you get in return. We can also review an existing agreement for you and point out where the risks lie. Feel free to get in contact for a conversation without obligation about your situation.