I am hiring the graphic designer through [website name] and under their terms and conditions it clearly states that the buyer is granted all intellectual rights unless specified. This is what it says:
Ownership and limitations: Unless clearly stated otherwise on the Seller's Gig page/description, when the work is delivered, and subject to payment, the Buyer is granted all intellectual property rights, including but not limited to, copyrights for the work delivered from the Seller, and the Seller waives any and all moral rights therein. The delivered work shall be considered work-for-hire under the U.S. Copyright Act. In the event the delivered work does not meet the requirements of work-for-hire or when US Copyright Act does not apply, the Seller expressly agrees to assign to Buyer the copyright in the delivered work. All transfer and assignment of intellectual property to Buyer shall be subject to full payment for the Gig and the delivery may not be used if payment is cancelled for any reason. For removal of doubt, in custom created work (such as art work, design work, report generation etc.), the delivered work shall be the exclusive property of Buyer, and Seller assigns all rights, title and interest in the delivered work. Some Gigs (including for custom created work) charge additional payments (through Gig Extras) for a Commercial Use License. This means that if you purchase the Gig for personal use, you will own all rights you require for such use, and will not need the Commercial Use License. If you intend to use it for any charge or other consideration, or for any purpose that is directly or indirectly in connection with any business, or other undertaking intended for profit, you will need to buy the Commercial Use License through a Gig Extra and will have broader rights that cover your business use.
Will this be enough or do I still need a contract? Thanks!
It sounds as if you are hiring an artist to design for you a
logo for your business.
A logo is an identifier of a company's goods or services just as a name is an identifier of a company. Both logos and names are trademarks. These are used to distinguish the company and the goods/services it markets from all other companies and all other goods and services.
Example: Ford Motor Company is the car company's trademark and the blue Ford oval is its logo.
You will need a transfer of rights agreement signed by the artist/copyright holder who designs your logo. What you describe would not be a work made for hire.
Without a written and signed transfer of all exclusive rights from the creator of the logo to you, the artist will retain the copyrights in the work.
These exclusive copyrights (the right to reproduce the work, the right to display or perform the work, the right to distribute the work, the right to create derivative works) can be transferred in full, whereby you become the new copyright holder, or these rights can be transferred in part, whereby you hold one or more of the exclusive rights, or these rights can be licensed, whereby the copyright holder retains all copyrights but allow you to use the work for a specified purpose and a specified time.
If the design is creative and original enough to qualify for copyright protection, the artist has copyright protection automatically upon creation.
Trademarks, on the other hand, gain their rights through their use in commerce. If you are the first to use a name or logo (or slogan or color or scent, etc ) as an identifier for your company and its goods/services, you have rights in that trademark.
Trademarks are not always eligible for copyright protection. Names are not copyrightable and not all logos are original or creative enough. It is often the case with logos that a company will pay an agreed upon price to an artist for creating the logo.
It is all can be a wee bit more complicated than the above, though.
I suggest you have an IP attorney in your area review the terms of the agreements/contracts being formed on the website you are considering using. There are problems with the terms as written.
Good luck.
