Freelancing has impacted the global working nation significantly as it has come up with the concept of outsourcing business and offering more freedom to artists and workers. Nevertheless, freedom of freelance work and creation is under the issue of conflict in relation to its protection. The first reason is that freelancers often don’t have the same kind of legal rights as full-time workers do, for instance, they have no right to a stable income or employee benefits. Furthermore, their work especially in the area of creativity is often at a risk of getting copied or being exploited by other people. This makes it essential for freelancers to find out more about the legal options that exist in order to be protected.
Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)
Various legal protection for freelance work and creative outputs is made available through the concepts of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). The IPR laws enable the owners to control their achievements so that their work can be used by any other person. The main domains of IPR are copyright, trademark, patent and trade secrets and each stands for different purposes protecting different creations.
Copyright
The most valuable IPR to freelancers is copyright because it protects freelance work as soon as it is created and recorded in a form that can be reproduced such as a writing, document, or computer file. This protection allows the creator to have special rights such as authorizing the reproduction of the work, distributing the work, and displaying it publicly.
Nonetheless, freelancers are required to protect these rights to the maximum of their capacity. Some of the misconceptions include; it is not necessary to register a copyright for one's work. Although one can use copyright without formal, the latter is much more beneficial as registered copyright proves the ownership and greatly increases one’s chances of winning a lawsuit.
For instance, consider a freelance photographer who shoots and uploads a sequence of photographic images on different social platforms; he or she has copyrights over those images. So if someone else uses those photos without prior permission the photographer can sue that person under the copyright laws. But if those works had been deposited with a copyright office then it would be easier to prove ownership and to sue for damages.
Trademarks
Trademarks seem to stand more for businesses, but anyone who brands himself under a particular name and logo or otherwise can benefit from trademark protection. Trademark can be a word, phrase, symbol, or design that an individual or company uses solely to classify his or her goods and services apart from the goods and services of another person or company. For freelancers, the trademark can be used to safeguard their individual brand, as well as ensure that other people cannot use the freelancer’s reputation in a bid to sell their products.
Patents and Trade Secrets
From the definition, patents are critical for freelancers who engage in innovation, technology or invention. A patent is a legal document, which gives the inventors exclusive privileges of the invention in the form of a product or process. Despite the fact that most freelance creative workers may not need patent protection, those, for instance, working on software development or product design may be required to use patent protection.
Trade secrets, in contrast, safeguard confidential business information including formulas, practices, processes, or designs enabling a business to stand out from the rest. It is recommended that freelancers dealing with sensitive client data should always make sure that, in case of disclosure of trade secrets, there will be stiff measures taken through non-disclosure agreements.
Contracts and Work Agreements
Employment protection for freelancers can thus be concluded that a sound contract is the anchor of freelance protection. Apparently, a lot of the conflicts associated with freelancing correspond to misunderstanding, undefined conditions as well as terms. Both parties cover themselves from the responsibilities, economic reimbursement, time schedules, ownership or rights to ideas and work completed, and methods of handling disputes.
Scope of Work and Deliverables.
Scope of work describes the extent of work to be done by the freelancer, and also the type of work to be expected on the client’s end. To recap the issue of vagueness about the contents of an agreement should be of great concern to freelancers as it creates disputes between the parties. These understand the delivery of various tasks in the plan hence creating accountability and time-bound milestones.
Payment Terms
The other problems that freelance workers encounter include late payment or non-payment from their clients. Payment should also be defined including the amount to be paid, times of payment, and consequences of delayed payment where the contract should be drafted to be as watertight as possible. To effectively manage the risk it is possible for freelancers to consider charging part of the payment upfront or charging on a progressive scale for big projects.
Ownership of Intellectual Property
Probably one of the most significant sections of the freelance contract would be the clause that uncovers issues to do with intellectual property. In matters of copyright, the rule is that the creator has the rights to the work, especially if the contract provides otherwise. That aside, clients may sometimes require that the freelancer shed the copyright and forward it to them. This is especially true with businesses in the freelance such as advertising or works of art commissioned. Transfer of full ownership can be risky for freelancers especially if they are not well compensated enough.
One can protect one’s rights through negotiation for clauses that permit exclusive control of the work in certain aspects such as portfolio usage or future sales.
Non-Disclosure and Confidentiality Agreements
When it comes to handling clients’ content which may be confidential in some way or the other, employees including those who are self-employed must have their contract contain a clause which states that they have to keep many aspects of the business which they are working on, confidential.
NDAs ensure that certain secrets, and information are not disclosed to other people or companies. An absence of the NDA can make a freelancer susceptible to litigations that they pass on the information belonging to their clients.
Licensing Agreements
The other important measure to protect freelance creative work is through licensing. Freelancers can also decide to assign copyrights to their work through licensing instead of assigning full ownership of their work to the clients. A license may be an exclusive one, which means that the client is the only one who has the right to use the work, as well as a non-exclusive one, in which the freelancer can sell the rights to use the work to other parties.
For instance, a graphic designer may design a logo that a client will use for their company or product but the designer will still own the copyright to the design and market the design for other usage. Freelancing gives freelancers a consistent source of income through licensing since they can license their fields such as photography, illustrations, or even software developers.
Freelance Protections Under Employment Laws
While freelancers do not fall under the same employment status as regular employees, some areas are beginning to give freelancers and gig workers certain legal protections. For instance, the new law – AB5 of California that was signed in 2019 tightened the standards on how gig economy platform contractors could be classified. The law was intended as a protection for freelance workers by
establishing the regular employees’ privileges including minimum wages, overtime, and unemployment insurance.
Though the law was a source of controversy and while several industries were given an escape, it proves how people believe freelance workers require more legal safety. Some of the countries have also included legislation that offers freelancers social security, health insurance, and industrial relation rights.
The following are the key main online platforms and their policies;
There is a proliferation of freelancers who do their business through online marketing platforms like; Upwork, Fiverr, and Freelancer. These platforms have their own rules concerning actions taken in case of a dispute or regarding protection of the payment made by the client, and the ownership of the ideas created by the users. It is important for freelancers to be conversant with such terms before they engage with clients through such channels. It is worth noting that although platforms do provide some protection for freelancers, it denies them the freedom to negotiate standard terms of employment.
A number of the platforms also provide escrow services by which the money can only be released upon satisfactory completion of work as requested by the client. This minimizes cases of non payment.
Legal Recourse for Freelancers
There is always the legal process through which freelancers can seek redress for any transgression in the course of business. The first stage is usually through mediation or arbitration where the freelance contract was signed with the clause on dispute resolution. Most of these processes are faster, and cheaper compared to open trials.
If mediation does not work then freelancers may have to go further and seek legal action. This is more of a fatal form of a response especially where intellectual property infringement or non-payment issues are grave. Freelancers should maintain their records of all the communication, contracts, and work being done so that you have a strong word on your side.
Conclusion
For writers as well as other independent contractors, this means having to learn a lot of subtleties in the law in order to safeguard their creations and themselves as best they can. Knowledge of IP, writing good contracts, and using licensing are some of the vital approaches toward protecting freelancing and output. Freelancing is on the rise and as such there will be an advancement in laws put in place to guard freelancers. Thus, freelancers have to keep themselves abreast of the developments
and have to take necessary preventive measures to successfully reduce the risks so that they can maximize their creative and financial returns.
AUTHOR:
RATNA GOPAL SINGH
DR. RAM MANOHAR LOHIYA NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY
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