Who Actually Owns Your Logo?

This surprises most business owners, and it tends to surface at the worst possible time — when you try to register a trademark, or when an investor's lawyer asks for proof of ownership.

Commissioning and paying for a logo does not, by itself, make you the copyright owner.

This is general information rather than legal advice, and the details differ by jurisdiction — but the broad position is consistent enough across the US and UK to be worth understanding.

The default rule

In both the United States and the United Kingdom, copyright generally vests first in the person who created the work. When you hire an independent contractor, they are the author, and they hold the copyright unless something changes that.

In the US, "work made for hire" is narrower than people assume: it covers works by employees within the scope of employment, and certain specifically enumerated commissioned categories under a signed agreement. A freelance logo does not automatically qualify. In the UK, the position is similar in effect — works by employees in the course of employment belong to the employer; commissioned works from a contractor do not transfer automatically.

Without a written assignment, what you typically have is an implied licence to use the logo for the purpose it was commissioned for. That is usually enough to operate — and not enough to stop someone else reusing it, to register cleanly, or to satisfy due diligence.

Why it becomes a real problem

• Trademark registration. Applying to the USPTO or the UKIPO is a formal claim to rights in a mark. Being unable to evidence ownership of the underlying artwork is a genuine complication.
• Investment and acquisition. IP ownership is standard due diligence. An unassigned logo is a real finding that has to be cleaned up, sometimes by re-contacting a designer you last spoke to years ago.
• Enforcement. If someone copies your mark, your position is materially weaker if you do not own the copyright in it.
• Reuse. Without an assignment, a designer may be free to reuse or resell elements of the work.

Copyright and trademark are different things

People conflate these constantly. Copyright protects the artwork as a creative work; it arises automatically on creation and belongs to the author. Trademark protects the mark as an identifier of your goods or services in the market; it arises from use and is strengthened by registration.

You want both, and the first supports the second. Get the copyright assigned, then register the trademark in the classes you actually trade in.

The AI wrinkle

If your logo was produced by a generative tool, ownership is genuinely unsettled. Both the US Copyright Office requires human authorship, and has refused registration for purely machine-generated output. The UK position is different rather than simply stricter: section 9(3) of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 does provide for computer-generated works, naming the person who made the arrangements as author. But that provision predates generative AI by decades, it sits awkwardly with the post-Brexit originality test, it has never been tested on a modern generator, and the government has consulted on removing it. So the honest position is uncertainty rather than absence — which is still a weak foundation for a mark you intend to defend.

It is one of the concrete, non-aesthetic reasons we draw every concept by hand.

What to ask for

One sentence, before you pay: "Will I receive a signed copyright assignment for the final logo?"

A studio that issues one as standard will say yes without hesitation. If the answer is vague, ask for it in writing as a condition. The document should identify the specific work, name you as the assignee, and be signed and dated by the designer or studio.

Every Dygram project ends with one as standard — it is listed in every package, not sold as an extra.