Contract for commissioned artists/designers

[Justin]

We have a contract with a number of artist & designers to enable us to use their work for our products. It's a standard downloaded contract but to me it's full of blurb and not specific to us. I'm looking into getting something more specific but wanted to ask, is it necessary to have a 12 page document for such an agreement? It would be great to cover everything on a single page.

Appreciate any advice

[pisquee]

We have licensed some designs to a company for printing on their cushions, and IIRC the contact was little more than a sentence, stating they were licensed to use the supplied designs for printing cushions for a period of x months, for sale within the UK, for a fee of y% of their sale price, or words to that effect.

[Justin]

Yeah just reading through ours it covers the basics but goes into loads of detail I really don't think we need. Surely if it's clear and unambiguous for both parties and they've signed it doesn't need all the mumbo jumbo.

[pisquee]

Depends on the level of trust between the two parties as to how much detail needs to be gone into.

[Justin]

I trust myself implicitly

[UK Printed Mugs]

At the end of the day who ever has the most expensive solicitor wins.

[pisquee]

Agreed on the solicitor thing - so, it does boil down to how much trust is in the relationship, with the contract being more a written statement of where everyone stands and what is agreed, rather than an long-winded overbearing legal-jargon filled multiple page document. Not so much a legal document to protect or control, as it's unlikely to do either really.

[GoonerGary]

I would write something yourself written in plain English and being very specific for your needs. When it's written in long winded legal jargon, your client won't understand it leading to misunderstanding. Since both of you have no intention of screwing each other over, there is no need to add confusing clauses.

I would however add, that in the event of a copyright infringement claim being pursued against you for listing infringing material, that all liability will be passed onto the artist, and they must cover any legal expenses which you may incur.