Blog · Working with a studio
Who owns the logo, files and domain after a project ends
A logo, its source files and a domain name are rarely covered in writing when a studio is hired. By default, UK copyright law leaves ownership of a commissioned design with the person who made it, not the client, unless a contract says otherwise. A domain follows the registrant, not whoever manages the account.
Three things nobody puts in writing
Most branding briefs cover timeline, price and revisions. Few cover what happens to the work once the invoice is paid. Three separate things are usually left unspoken, and they follow three different rules.
- The logo itself. A final export as a PNG or JPEG is not the same thing as the editable source file (an .ai, .eps or layered .svg) that lets anyone resize, recolour or rebuild it.
- The domain name. Whoever is named as the registrant on the registration record holds the contractual right to the name, regardless of who is paying the renewal invoice.
- The website and hosting. A site can sit on a platform or server account that belongs to the studio rather than the client, which decides who can move it, edit it, or shut it down.
What the law defaults to when nobody writes it down
In the UK, commissioning a design does not transfer copyright automatically. GOV.UK's guidance on ownership of copyright works is direct about it: "the first legal owner of copyright is the person or organisation that created the work and not you the commissioner, unless you otherwise agree it in writing." Paying the invoice in full does not change that by itself. Without a written agreement, courts have been willing to read in an implied licence, letting the client use the logo for the purpose it was made for, but that licence is not the same as owning it, and it does not always cover a rebrand, a resale of the business, or a new supplier picking up the file years later.
The position is similar in the US, for a reason many studios do not realise. Copyright law lets a client and a contractor agree in writing that a piece of work is "made for hire," so the client owns it outright from the start. But Cornell Law School's definition of work made for hire limits that option, for an independent contractor, to a fixed list: "a contribution to a collective work, as part of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, as a translation, as a supplementary work, as a compilation, as an instruction text, as a test or answer for a test, or as an atlas." A logo is not on that list. A written agreement calling it "work made for hire" is not enough on its own. What actually transfers ownership is a written copyright assignment, a different and more specific document.
A domain is a different kind of ownership
A domain name is not a copyright question at all. It is a registration held under contract with a registry, .uk domains through Nominet's registry policy, and it is administered day to day through a registrar. The person or organisation named as the registrant is the one with a contractual claim on the name, whether or not they are the one who clicks renew each year. A studio that registers a client's domain under its own account, to keep things simple during setup, can end up as that registrant by default. Years later, if the relationship ends, the client can find the domain is not theirs to take with them, even after paying for every renewal.
| Deliverable | Default with no written agreement | What to ask for instead |
|---|---|---|
| Logo | Copyright stays with the designer or studio | A written copyright assignment on final payment |
| Source files | Only the exported files you were sent | Editable originals, not just PNG or JPEG exports |
| Domain name | Owned by whoever is named as registrant | Registration in the client's own name and account |
The website itself sits somewhere between the two. There is no separate body of law for "who owns a website": it is a mix of the code and design (covered by the same copyright rules as the logo), the domain (covered by registration rules), and whichever hosting or platform account the site actually runs on. A site built on a page builder under the studio's own account can be harder to move than the contract implies, even when the domain itself is correctly registered to the client, because moving house and moving the domain are two different jobs.
Three questions worth asking before signing
- Who will be named as the registrant on the domain, and can I log into that account myself?
- Do I receive editable source files at the end of the project, or only exported logos?
- Is there a written assignment of rights, or only an invoice and an email thread?
What this looks like at a two person studio
At Orbe, any domain registered during a project is set up in the client's own name and account from the outset, not ours, and source files transfer on the final invoice, not on request months later. Neither of those things needs a large legal team to get right, only a habit of writing it down before the project starts rather than after it ends. The same honesty applies to working with a studio based outside the country: a client abroad cannot easily chase down paperwork after the fact, so the paperwork has to exist from day one.
Common questions
Do I own my logo just because I paid for it?
Not automatically. Under UK and US law, payment alone does not transfer copyright from an independent designer or studio to the client. Ownership needs a written agreement, either at the time of commissioning or as a separate assignment afterwards.
What is the difference between a licence and owning the copyright?
A licence lets you use the work for an agreed purpose, but the designer keeps the underlying copyright and can restrict how far that use extends. Owning the copyright means the rights themselves have transferred to you, with no need to ask permission for new uses.
Who owns a domain name if the studio registered it?
Whoever is named as the registrant on the registration record. If a studio registered the domain under its own details rather than the client's, the client is not the legal registrant even after years of paying for renewals.
What source files should I ask for at the end of a project?
The editable originals rather than exported images: for a logo, that typically means a vector file such as .ai, .eps or a layered .svg, not only a flattened PNG or JPEG.
Can a studio refuse to hand over files after the final invoice is paid?
That depends entirely on what the contract says about ownership and delivery. Without a written agreement, disputes fall back on general contract and copyright law, which is exactly the situation a written agreement exists to avoid.
Louis Denis, Orbe Studio
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