Commissioned work and rights transfer agreement template
A creator makes a work to order and the client receives the rights: brief, delivery, fee and when the rights pass. A sample contract you can read in full, edit in QuoteBill and sign online with a secure link.
Sample — review with a lawyer · Simple electronic signature with an audit trail
Who it is for
For a business or person who orders a text, design, illustration or software from a freelancer or studio and wants the rights in the result, and for the creator who wants the terms clear.
Who owns a work made to order, and whether rights must be assigned in writing, differs by country; the client does not own it automatically everywhere. Check the law that applies.
What it covers
14 clauses, in this order. Each one is in the sample text below, and you can edit, remove or add clauses before you send.
1. Purpose
What the agreement is for: the Creator makes the work below to the Client’s order, and the Client receives rights in it.
2. The commissioned work
A blank describing the work: type, subject, format, size, quantity and the brief. The Creator decides how to do it within the brief and answers for its own helpers.
3. Schedule and delivery
The Creator delivers by a date, in a file format and by a method set in blanks. The date moves for the time the Client takes to give materials or approvals, and the Creator warns early of any delay.
4. Review and acceptance
The Client reviews within a set number of days and accepts or comments. A set number of revision rounds is included; more cost extra. Silence after a reminder counts as acceptance, as far as the law allows.
5. Fee and expenses
The fee comes from the price schedule. Expenses agreed in advance are charged at cost against receipts, and the Creator says what extra requests would add before it starts.
6. Transfer of rights
Once the fee is paid in full, the copyright and related rights pass to the Client for the countries, term and uses in blanks, or an exclusive licence of the same scope where the law forbids a transfer. Before that, only for review.
7. Moral rights and credit
Moral rights stay with the author as the law provides. As far as the law allows, the Creator does not object to editing for the intended use. No right that cannot be given up is given up. A blank sets the credit.
8. Existing material and tools
The Creator keeps its skills, tools, templates and earlier material. If the work contains such material, the Client gets a lasting licence to use it as part of the work. A blank lists material already planned.
9. Materials from the Client and third parties
The Client supplies materials it may lawfully give. The Creator asks before adding third-party material such as stock images, fonts or code; its licence terms go with it and the Client follows them.
10. Portfolio and confidentiality
The Creator may show the finished work in its portfolio from a date in a blank unless the Client objects for confidentiality. Each side keeps the other’s non-public information secret for a set number of years.
11. Warranties and liability
The Creator states the work is its own original creation, apart from listed material, and does not knowingly infringe others’ rights. Liability is capped at an amount in a blank, with the usual exceptions the law requires.
12. Ending the agreement early
Either side may end it for a serious breach not put right in time; the Client may end it without a reason on notice. The Client pays for the work done, and rights pass only in the parts it has paid for.
13. Independent parties
The Creator is independent: no employment, partnership or agency, and it bears its own taxes, contributions and insurance as the law requires.
14. Governing law and disputes
The law you name applies. The sides first try to settle a dispute in good faith, and otherwise the courts you name decide.
A price schedule (items, quantities and prices) is part of this contract. It starts empty, in your currency, and the clauses on fees and payment point to it.
The sample text
The whole sample, as QuoteBill starts it. Text in double square brackets, like [[10]], is a blank to fill in or check. A figure or time such as [[10]] that you leave as it is is used as shown when you send; a blank that needs your own words must be filled first. The clause text is written in English, Korean, Japanese and German; in other languages a contract starts in English for you to translate.
Read the sample text
Commissioned Work and Rights Transfer Agreement
Parties: Creator · Client
1. Purpose
This agreement sets out the terms on which the Creator makes the work described below to the Client’s order, and the rights the Client receives in that work.
2. The commissioned work
The Creator makes the following work (the “Work”) for the Client:
[[Describe the work: type, subject, format, length or size, number of items and any brief or specification the Client has given]]
The Creator decides how to carry out the work within the brief and may use helpers and tools of its own choice; it remains responsible for its helpers.
3. Schedule and delivery
The Creator delivers the Work, or the parts of it named in the brief, by [[Delivery date]] in [[the agreed file format]] by [[download link / e-mail / physical delivery]]. A delivery date moves by the time the Client takes to give materials, feedback or approvals that are needed. If the Creator sees that it cannot keep a date, it tells the Client without delay and proposes a new one.
4. Review and acceptance
The Client reviews each delivery within [[7]] days and either accepts it or sends clear comments in writing or in electronic form. The fee includes [[2]] rounds of revisions within the brief; changes outside the brief and further rounds are agreed first and charged at [[Hourly or per-change rate]]. If the Client does not respond within the review period after a reminder, the delivery counts as accepted, as far as the law that applies allows.
5. Fee and expenses
The Client pays the fees shown in the price schedule of this contract. Expenses that were agreed in advance, such as licences for third-party material, travel or printing, are charged at cost against receipts. If the Client asks for more than was agreed, the Creator tells the Client before it starts what this would add to the fee.
6. Transfer of rights
When the Client has paid the fee for the Work in full, the Creator assigns to the Client, as far as the law that applies allows, the copyright and the related rights in the Work, for [[all countries]], for [[the full term of protection]] and for [[all uses and media / the uses and media listed here]]. Where the law that applies does not allow the copyright itself to be assigned, the Creator instead grants the Client an exclusive, transferable right to use the Work in the same scope.
Until it has paid in full, the Client may use the Work only for [[review and approval]]. After the transfer the Client may edit, combine, translate, publish, license and transfer the Work, as the law that applies allows.
7. Moral rights and credit
The author’s moral rights, such as the right to be named and to object to a distortion of the Work, stay with the author as the law that applies provides. As far as the law that applies allows such an agreement, the Creator agrees that the Client may edit the Work for its intended use and will not object to this on the basis of moral rights; no right that the law does not allow to be given up is given up.
Credit: [[The wording in which the Creator is credited / No credit is given]]
8. Existing material and tools
The Creator keeps its rights in its general skills, tools, templates and methods and in material that existed before this agreement or that it makes independently of it (“Existing Material”). Where the Work contains Existing Material, the Creator grants the Client a non-exclusive, perpetual, transferable licence to use it as part of the Work, for the same uses and media as the Work.
Existing Material that the Creator already knows it will use: [[none / the material]]
9. Materials from the Client and third parties
The Client supplies the texts, images, data and other materials it wants used and states that it may give them to the Creator for this purpose. The Creator tells the Client in advance if it wants to include third-party material, such as stock images, fonts, music or code under another licence, and the Client decides whether to use it. The licence terms of such material stay with it, and the Client follows them.
10. Portfolio and confidentiality
The Creator may show the finished Work in its portfolio, on its website and on social media from [[the date the Work is published / the date of delivery]], unless the Client has asked it in writing or in electronic form not to, for reasons of confidentiality.
Each party keeps confidential the non-public information it receives from the other for the Work and uses it only for this agreement, except where the law requires it to be disclosed. This duty lasts [[3]] years after the end of this agreement.
11. Warranties and liability
The Creator states that the Work is its own original creation, apart from Existing Material, the Client’s materials and the third-party material identified under this agreement, and that, to its knowledge, the Work does not infringe the rights of others. The Creator does not promise a particular commercial result.
Except for intent, gross negligence, personal injury, a breach of the statement on originality or where the law does not allow a limitation, each party’s total liability under this agreement is limited to [[the fees paid or payable under it / a fixed amount]].
12. Ending the agreement early
Either party may end this agreement by notice in writing or in electronic form if the other party seriously breaches it and does not put this right within [[14]] days of being asked to. The Client may also end it without a reason on [[7]] days’ notice. In either case the Client pays for the work done until the end and for expenses already agreed. The rights in the parts the Client has paid for pass as stated under Transfer of rights; the parts it has not paid for stay with the Creator.
13. Independent parties
The parties are independent. This agreement does not create an employment, partnership or agency relationship, and the Creator is responsible for its own taxes, social contributions and insurance as the law that applies requires.
14. Governing law and disputes
This agreement is governed by the law stated under Governing law. The parties will first try to settle any dispute in good faith. Otherwise the courts stated under Jurisdiction decide, unless mandatory law provides otherwise.
Payment terms
The fee is payable [[50]]% on signature and [[50]]% on acceptance of the Work, each within [[14]] days of receiving the invoice, by bank transfer to the account stated on the invoice.
Governing law
[[Country or state whose law applies]]
Jurisdiction
[[Courts that decide disputes, e.g. the courts of your city]]
How to use it
Choose the template
Press the button to use this template. If you are not signed in, you first sign in or sign up for free and then come straight back to it.
Start a draft
The new-contract page opens with this template marked. Press its card to create a draft. Your company details fill in Party A, and you fill in the blanks, the other party and, where the template has one, the price schedule.
Send it for signature
You sign first, then send each signer a secure link and, by another route, an access code. Signers need no account.
Next steps
Your client opens the link on any device and needs no account. See what the signing looks like on the E-Contracts page, and read which kind of electronic signature is enough for which document.
Already signed? Make the invoice from the signed contract: the parties and the price lines carry over, in full or for a deposit. The guide on turning a quotation into an invoice shows how to review the new draft, its dates and the PDF.
What it is, and what it is not
QuoteBill creates a simple electronic signature with an audit trail. In the EU, the UK, the US and Korea a signature is not denied legal effect only because it is electronic, and in Japan most contracts need no particular form at all. What a simple electronic signature proves in a dispute depends on the evidence behind it, and some documents need another form.
It is not a qualified or advanced electronic signature, and QuoteBill does not verify who the signers are. It records the use of the link and access code you delivered, so anyone who has both can sign. The signature certificate lists every link issued and, for each action by the sender or a signer, its IP address and browser where they could be read.
Some documents need another form. Wills, many real-estate transfers, guarantees and some employment documents must, in some countries, be handwritten, notarised or signed with a qualified signature. The templates are samples, not legal advice: review them with a lawyer.
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