Legal Question in Intellectual Property in New York
If a volunteer creates a design for a tee shirt for use by a 501c3 non-profit charitable organization, who owns the copyright to the design? What are the legalities of the organization using the design especially if at some point in the future the volunteer decides to leave the organization?
1 Answer from Attorneys
If the organization plans to use the volunteer's design, the organization needs to obtain copyright now, while the volunteer is friendly to the organization. At this point, the volunteer owns copyright unless s/he signed an agreement with the organization that transfers all intellectual property created by the volunteer in the course of his/her volunteer duties to the organization.
Transfer of copyright is done through contract (which means that the organization would have to give the volunteer something for the copyright; it need not be money, but some consideration needs to pass from the organization to the volunteer).
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