I received a phone call from a client recently making an enquiry as to where the ownership of artwork and content lay following the design and print of a brochure we had produced for them. My response was immediate in terms of acknowledging that as far as Brackenhill is concerned, the ownership resides with the customer (given that they have paid their bill of course!).

I recognise that this is somewhat of a grey area given that the original files more often than not physically reside with the graphic design agency that has produced them in the first place. Indeed I have no issue in making a charge to a client who subsequently wants these to be retrieved from the archives and sent on, but this is just a nominal charge to reflect the time taken to undertake the task rather than a charge levied to assign a transfer of rights.

The question had arisen in the first place because our client had become aware of the misuse of their images by a former employee, now working for a competitor business, who was using the images on the competitors website - a totally different scenario altogether and one we would support wholeheartedly in decrying.