short form assignment agreement

• Practical Law

Patent Assignment Agreement (Short Form)

Practical law standard document 6-507-2833  (approx. 14 pages).

• United States

Intellectual Property Assignment Agreement (Short Form) | Practical Law

Intellectual Property Assignment Agreement (Short Form)

Practical law standard document 1-385-2746  (approx. 18 pages).

Short form letter of assignment

Published by a lexisnexis commercial expert.

[ On headed notepaper of the assignor ]

To: [ Insert name and address of Assignee ]

[ Insert date ]

Dear [ insert name of Assignee ]

Assignment of contract

We refer to the agreement between [ insert name of other party to the contract being assigned ] and [ insert name of Assignor ] ( Assignor ) relating to [ insert specific purpose of agreement ] [ , as amended from time to time, ] dated [ insert date ] ( Contract ), a copy of which is annexed to this Letter and initialled by the parties to this Letter. [ As part of an internal reorganisation of our group of companies OR As a result of [ insert the business background to the

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The IP Law Blog

The essential purpose of the short form copyright assignment.

17 U.S.C. § 205 deals with the recording of transfers of copyright ownership.  The Copyright Act does not require that transfers be recorded.  In order for a transfer of an interest in a copyright to be effective, it is enough that it is in writing and signed by parties.  So if the Copyright Act does not require that transfers of ownership by recorded, what is the benefit to doing it.

Similar to recording an initial copyright interest in a work, transfers are recorded in order to provide constructive notice of the transfer of ownership and to vest the new owner with the right to sue for infringement.  There is one other reason to record the transfer of copyright ownership and other documents pertaining to a copyright; addressing how to deal with conflicting transfers.

Some may assume that once the seller of a copyright interest transfers ownership that seller cannot sell the same interest a second time (or if the unscrupulous seller does so, the second buyer takes nothing).  That’s not always the case.  17 U.S.C. § 205(d) provides:

As between two conflicting transfers, the one executed first prevails if it is recorded, in the manner required to give constructive notice under [17 U.S.C. § 205(c)], within one month after its execution in the United States or within two months after its execution outside the United States, or at any time before recordation in such manner of the later transfer.  Otherwise the later transfer prevails if recorded first in such manner, and if taken in good faith, for valuable consideration or on the basis of a binding promise to pay royalties, and without notice of the earlier transfer.

In the scenario where the first buyer (or first exclusive licensee or first optionee) fails to record its interest prior to a second transfer (or grant of exclusive license or grant of option), a second transferee who took without notice, paid valuable consideration and recorded its transaction first, would have a superior interest in the subject work.  If, however, the subsequent transferee had notice (constructive, actual and possibly inquiry notice), then the subsequent transferee would not have a superior interest.  Similarly, the subsequent transferee would not have a superior interest if valuable consideration was not paid, or if the prior transferee recorded its transfer within the statutory grace period of one (or two) months from execution of the prior transfer.

My client was surprised to learn that if it did not record its option (in the form of a short form option), an unscrupulous rights holder could grant the same option to the same material a second time and divest my client of its rights under the option agreement.  While my client would certainly have a claim against the unscrupulous rights holder, the damages my client could potentially collect may be limited to its out of pocket costs and expenses related to the option; no recovery of any potential profits the client could have made from the exploitation of the program based on the literary material that was the subject of the option.