I had a meeting with the attorney and she printed a contract form for me. However, since then, I've been doing some research on my own to find something more closely related to what I'm trying to do (a form which transfers ownership and rights of images and IP from artist to buyer).

So I found some "Property Release Forms." They appear to be more frequently used in photography, but I believe it may be possible to modify the following Property Release Form to suit my needs:

Quote: In consideration of the sum of __________________________ Dollars ($_____________), receipt of which is hereby acknowledged, I, _______________________________, located at ________________________________________, do irrevocably authorize ________________________, his or her assigns, licensees, heirs, and legal representatives, to copyright, publish, and use in all forms and media and in all manners for advertising, trade, or any other lawful purpose, images of the following property which I own and have full and sole authority to license for such uses: ______________________________________________________________________________________, regardless of whether said use is composite or distorted in character or form, whether said use is made in conjunction with my own name or with a ficticious name, or whether said use is made in color or otherwise or other derivative works are made through any medium.

I waive any right that I may have to inspect or approve the finished version(s), including written copy that may be used in connection therewith.

I am of full age and have every right to contract in my own name with respect to the foregoing matters. I have read the above authorization and release prior to its execution and I am fully cognizant of its contents.

Witness ________________ Owner ___________________
Address ________________ Date ____________________, 20__

[Edited by - josh1billion on April 3, 2008 7:33:47 PM]

Quote: Original post by neonic
....I would suggest that you find a lawyer that you or someone in your family knows that has done business with ....

I would not recommend this at all, UNLESS the lawyer in question has experience of IP law and preferably games industry experience too.

Quote: ...another good place that you might want to look for legal consultation is law students. They can be kind of busy, so make sure they are willing to discuss something with you before you just pounce it on them, but they are pretty well versed in things like writing legally watertight contracts and will generally be very helpful.

Again, unless they have studied IP law in depth I would stay clear of students.

Put simply the cost of a mistake is likely to far outweigh the cost of getting proper legal advice.

Update:

I found the agreement I'm looking for. Here it is:

http://www.copyrightforms.org/copyright-assignment-agreement-for-artwork_p.html

It costs $12 to buy the form from that website, which is a nice price. I'll need to make a few very small modifications to the form to be more specific (basically, I will add the artwork to the form itself and add a few short words regarding it).

I purchased the written agreement from that website, and it looks very good. I'm modifying it right now.

But I'm having some difficulty writing a solid description of the artwork, defined in the agreement as the "Work". I'm not sure if I should describe the images by filename (most likely) as I have done below...

Madelelaw (or others), can you take a look at this and offer your personal opinion and/or suggestions for improvement? The two underlined parts are what I'm talking about; the rest is part of the agreement. Note that this is only a small fraction of the agreement, obviously.. only the part I need help with (defining the "Work").

Quote:
WHEREAS, Assignor is the copyright holder and owner of all proprietary interest in the images, designs, ideas and likenesses of the images depicted in the digital files orbulite.png, bootworm.png, stingroy.png, babyseadragon.png demon_bat.png, cloakergeist.png, seedstalker.png and seedling.png, including modified and unmodified versions (the “Work”), of which depictions of the images are demonstrated herein.

[IMAGES SHOWN HERE, SOME OF WHICH HAVE BEEN SCALED (does the scaling need to be mentioned, or is that covered above?)]

AND WHEREAS, Assignor wishes to transfer all rights, ownership and interest in the Work, including the copyright and all other intellectual property rights in the Work, to Assignee, under the terms set forth in this Agreement;