Logo Ownership

[Stevenson]

I have several people who would like to switch to us for their embroidery. They say that the company that had previously been doing their work refuses to turn it over to them. Is this ethical? Does the design belong to the person who personally drew it who in this case is the customer?

Thank you in advance for any input.

Pam Stevenson
[email protected]

[signman]

here's what you run into...the customer 'may' own their LOGO, if they designed it themselves or 'bought' the rights to it from the artist/company that came up with it. (When you as an artist/graphic person design any logo, YOU own the copyright UNLESS you sell the 'rights' to it to the customer-they don't automatically own the rights to use it.)
When a client brings a logo to a shop (embroidery, signshop, screenprint shop) they still own 'the logo', but NOT the 'files' used by that shop. (Digitized files, screen vellums or actual screens, digital files for printing, etc.) THOSE remain the property of the shop. The customer does NOT automatically get to 'keep' those files, screens, prints, etc. UNLESS THEY PAID FOR IT SPECIFICALLY. This means if you paid a 'setup' or 'screen charge'-you do NOT own them-you only paid that company to set up your design. So if they went to WE-SEW-ANTHING COMPANY and had embroidery done-they may have PAID to get the design digitized, but they do NOT own the digitized file. Since not all files are universal, it may be useless for you to get it anyways. Sorry, your customer is going to have to start all over with you-unless you decide not to charge them to setup just to get their business. A reminder to everyone...PUT IT ON YOUR INVOICES that the customer does NOT 'own' any files, prints, digital versions, etc. needed for YOUR internal operation-or they 'could' take you to court and demand you turn it over to them.
You have asked 2 totally different questions; #1, is it ethical (because the company won't turn over the 'files'? Yes, as explained above-the customer doesn't own 'the FILES'
#2, does the design belong to the person who drew it? YES it does...but that doesn't mean they automatically own files needed to REPLICATE that logo. But it DOES mean the other company CANNOT USE THAT LOGO, OR ANY PORTION OF IT...for any other job. Laws changed a couple years ago for copyright-and it doesn't matter how MUCH you change a design, you CANNOT use any portion of a copyrighted design for any other reason. Period...