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United Kingdom design rightownershipcommissioned works

Ultraframe UK Ltd v Fielding

[2003] EWCA Civ 1805, [2004] RPC 24
JurisdictionUnited Kingdom
CourtCourt of Appeal (Civil Division)
Year2003
StatusBinding authority

Key Principle

A person owns design right or copyright in designs as a commissioned or employed work only if, at the time the designs were made, he was under a contractual obligation (of employment or commission) to produce them; where the designer was free to make the designs when he chose and was under no such prior obligation, neither his company nor its successors acquire title to those design rights.

Area of Law

General

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