Copyright, Licensing & IP Transactions

Wayver advises on copyright protection, intellectual property licensing, assignments, brand-use arrangements, and other commercial transactions involving intellectual property.

One right, two destinations

Licence The right stays yours. Someone else may use it, on your terms, for a period you set.

Assignment The right leaves. Ownership transfers, and getting it back means buying it back.

Overview

Copyright arises the moment a work is created. Registration is not required for the right to exist, which is why most businesses assume the position is settled and discover otherwise at the point it matters: a funding round, an acquisition, or a dispute with the person who made the thing.

The recurring problem is ownership. Work produced by an employee in the course of employment generally belongs to the employer. Work commissioned from an agency, a freelancer or a studio generally does not, unless it was assigned in writing. A great deal of what companies believe they own sits in the second category.

Wayver advises on who owns what, documents the transfer or the licence properly, and papers the commercial transactions that rest on intellectual property.

Scope of Work

Copyright Advisory

What is protected and what is not, who owns it, how long it lasts, and what registration adds as evidence. Advice across literary, artistic, musical and cinematographic works, and software, which Indian law treats as a literary work.

IP Licensing

Licences drafted around the commercial deal rather than a template: scope, exclusivity, territory, term, sublicensing, royalties and reporting, quality control, and what happens to the licensee's use when the arrangement ends.

Trademark & Copyright Assignments

Transfers that hold. Assignments have formal requirements in India, and an assignment that fails to state the rights, the duration or the territory may not carry what the parties assumed. We draft them, and we fix the ones that did not.

Brand-Use Agreements

Permission to use a name, logo or mark without transferring it: co-branding, sponsorships, collaborations, merchandising and endorsements, with the control provisions that keep the mark protected while somebody else is using it.

Commercial IP Transactions

The IP side of deals: what is being acquired, whether the seller can actually convey it, warranties and indemnities, and the schedules that describe the assets with enough precision to be enforceable afterwards.

Chain of Title

Establishing an unbroken line from every author to the company that claims the rights, and closing the gaps with confirmatory assignments before an investor, an acquirer or a platform asks the question for you.

How the Work Runs

Establish what exists

The works, the marks, the software, the content, and who made each of them. This is usually the step that produces the surprises.

Establish who owns it

Employment terms, contractor agreements, agency contracts and prior assignments, read against what the business believes it holds.

Close the gaps

Confirmatory assignments, corrected documentation, and recordals where the register needs to reflect the true position.

Paper what comes next

The licence, the assignment or the transaction, drafted so the position stays clear to whoever reads it in five years.

Sectors

Technology, AI/ML & SaaS

Software ownership between founders, employees and contractors, open-source obligations, licence models, and the rights position investors test in diligence.

Media, Entertainment, Creators & Influencers

Rights in content and formats, talent and production agreements, brand collaborations, merchandising, and the takedown and enforcement work that follows infringement.

Consumer Brands & Design

Packaging, artwork and design assets created by agencies, where ownership is assumed rather than documented, and where launch timelines expose the gap.

Publishing, Education & Ed-Tech

Course material, curricula and editorial content, licensing between institutions and platforms, and permissions for third-party material.

Why Wayver

Intellectual property is the firm's core practice. Ownership questions are not handled at arm's length from the trademark and brand protection work; they are the same practice.

Ownership checked before it is relied on. Because the firm also conducts diligence for investors, chain of title is built to the standard a transaction will later apply.
Drafted for the commercial deal. Licences and assignments written around what the parties actually intend, rather than a precedent that fits neither.
Connected to the trademark practice. Assignments, recordals and brand-use arrangements handled by the same firm that files and defends the marks.
Documents that still read clearly later. The value of a rights document is tested years afterwards, usually by someone who was not in the room.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do we own the work our agency or freelancer created for us?

Often not, and this is the single most common gap we find. Work produced by an employee in the course of employment generally belongs to the employer. Work commissioned from an independent agency, freelancer or studio generally stays with its author unless it has been assigned to you in writing. Paying an invoice does not transfer copyright. The fix is a confirmatory assignment, which is straightforward while the relationship is good and considerably harder afterwards.

Does copyright need to be registered in India?

No. Copyright arises automatically when a work is created, and registration is optional. What registration provides is evidence: a dated official record of the claim, which is useful if ownership is ever disputed or where a platform, a customer or a court wants something more than an assertion. For businesses whose value sits substantially in content or software, it is usually worth having.

What is the difference between a licence and an assignment?

An assignment transfers ownership; the right leaves you and recovering it means acquiring it back. A licence leaves ownership where it is and permits somebody else to use the right on stated terms, for a stated period. Businesses frequently sign assignments when a licence was intended, because the document they were given said assignment. The distinction is worth settling before signature rather than afterwards.

Is our software protected by copyright in India?

Yes. Indian law treats computer programmes as literary works, so source code attracts copyright in the same way written material does. The practical issues are ownership rather than protection: who wrote it, under what contract, and whether contributions from contractors, agencies or open-source components have been properly accounted for.

What should an assignment actually say?

At minimum it should be in writing and signed, and it should identify the work, the specific rights being assigned, the duration and the territory. Indian law supplies default positions where a document is silent on duration or territory, and those defaults are frequently narrower than the parties assumed. Being explicit costs nothing at the drafting stage.

When should we look at chain of title?

Before somebody else does. Investor diligence, an acquisition, a platform dispute or a licensing negotiation will each test whether the company can actually demonstrate ownership of what it is selling or licensing. Establishing the position while relationships are intact is inexpensive; reconstructing it under time pressure, from people who have since left, is not.

This FAQ is general information about Indian law and practice and does not constitute legal advice for any specific business.

Disclaimer

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