Who Owns the Work
You paid for it. Do you own it?
The idea
Ownership of created work depends on the agreement and the relationship, and does not automatically follow payment.
In the real world
A commissioned design where the creator retains rights unless they were assigned.
Going deeper
Ownership of created work follows the agreement and the relationship, not the payment. In many jurisdictions a commissioning party gets a licence to use rather than the underlying right, unless rights were expressly assigned in writing.
This surfaces late, typically when the work needs to be registered, sold, modified substantially or included in a company sale. At that point the creator's cooperation is required and the leverage has moved. An express assignment clause costs nothing at the time of engagement and is difficult to obtain retrospectively.
Where it stops applying
Rules differ significantly between jurisdictions and between employees and contractors, and moral rights may persist even after assignment. Specific advice matters here.
Why it matters
It is discovered late, usually when the work needs to be reused or sold.
Try this today
Check whether your contractor agreements assign rights or only licence them.
Test yourself
A company pays a freelancer for a logo, then tries to register it as a trade mark and finds it cannot use it freely. What was missing?
Show the answer
A written assignment of the rights. In many jurisdictions the creator retains ownership by default and payment buys a licence to use rather than the underlying right. Rules differ by country and by employment status, so the assignment has to be explicit.
Learn this in the feed Answering from memory, then again days later, is what makes it stick.