Media, Entertainment and Creative industry

Industry Players

Whether you are a design agency, a production company, a publishing house, or performing artist, you live, to a large degree, from your creative output. You may do this work on your own behalf or on behalf of others. Some players do creative work on behalf of a third party, while others only manage and/or administer rights on their own or others’ behalf. The common denominator is that intellectual property rights occupy a central position.

Why are intellectual property rights important?

Intellectual property rights become even more important when your livelihood depends upon your creative output. You need to take steps to protect your asset, such as registration, to secure ownership of anything more than the individual copy created. Even if intellectual property rights arise automatically when something is created (copyright), this does not automatically mean that others will respect your rights. It takes time and resources to enforce your own rights.
Where something is created on behalf of (or perhaps commissioned by) others, there can also be some uncertainty and disagreement about who owns the resulting intangible assets. This should be discussed and agreed before a dispute arises. In most cases the terms of the agreement should be set out in a written contract, such as a contract for commissioned artwork, an employment contract or other form of cooperation agreement.

How can we help?

Bryn Aarflot has helped clients with intellectual property rights for many decades. Clients range from the world’s largest entertainment group to medium-sized design and communication agencies and independent artists. In some cases, it is a matter of finding the strategy which best protects your rights. In other cases, it is about stopping ongoing infringement of those rights. We have extensive experience of helping many different types of licensees at all stages of the life cycle of an intangible asset. This experience is at your disposal.