Declaration from a manufacter to use pictures for commercial use

[sunshineworking]

Good Morning,

First of all we are happy we have found this great forum!

We are working for a american fashion brand, we would like to expand our market and for this reason we have found a good manufacter in Asia.

Now we would like to sell these styles on our website. The manufacter can offer us very high quality and professional pictures. We can use these pictures without restrictions.

We would like to use the professional pictures on our website and marketing tools.

So we have asked to the manufacter if he is the owner of all the pictures and model and he has confirmed that.

We want to present to the manufacter a declaration where he subscribe us that he is the full owner of the pictures and we have the completly right to use their on our website etc for a commercial use.

He has accepted our request, so now the question is, can somebody tell me please where to find (or how to write....) a standard documents with all the details which can protect us?

We dont wanna have problems in future with models, photografer, other company etc.

Many thanks for the help!


Thank you very much!




What is the name of your state (FL)?What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?

 

[divgradcurl]

What country are you in?

 

[sunshineworking]

Fl

FLORIDA


regards

 

[divgradcurl]

There are probably standard agreements you could find on the web, or you could hire a lawyer to draft one to your specifications pretty inexpensively.

That said, it won't really provide you with any real protection. Even if this person signs such a declaration, that won't prevent you from getting sued. If this person forges the declaration -- says he owns the rights to the photos, when he doesn't -- then the rightful owner still has the right to sue you. You can't get away from that. You may have a cause of action against this guy if you do get sued, but that's a separate matter.

Second, lets say you get sued, then you want to sue this guy to recover your losses based on his declaration. Are you going to sue him in Asia? Because unless he has assets here, or an office here in the U.S., you can't force him to come to the U.S. to face trial, and U.S. courts can't obligate him to pay up if he loses unless he has property that can be attached in the U.S.

And if you do sue him in Asia, you need to make sure that the declaration he signs is binding in his own country. China, for example, has strict limitations on such declarations, and in some cases they are outright illegal.

For the type of protection it appears you are seeking, you may want to see about either an indemnification agreement (which may suffer from the same issues as above, at least to some extent) or insurance, which will cost money. In this event, you will really need a lawyer to help you out, this is not a do-it-yourself issue.

EDIT: If all you are worried about is whether or not this company can sue you later on (and not about other parties suing you), then a simple license agreement might be sufficient for your purposes. You may be able to find something on the web that can work, you could even just write down the scope of your agreement yourself -- there is not requirement that a license or any other contract be hard to read! -- but you may want to sit down with an attorney to ensure that what you draft will cover you and be enforceable or binding in whatever country you need it to be binding or enforceable.