8. IP ownership

IP can have multiple owners and belong to businesses, organisations, employers, individuals or communities. IP Australia has more information about IP ownership.

You can sell, transfer or licence your IP. A licence allows others to use your IP, according to the licence conditions, but you retain the ownership.

What is an IP licence?

What is a licence? (YouTube, 53s) explains what licences cover including exclusivity, duration, purpose, restricted uses and attribution requirements:

When deciding on an IP licence, think about why you want to licence it and how you want the licensee to use it.

The terms of a licence can override standard IP protections so it is important to understand the conditions before agreeing to a licence for your work.

Creative Commons licences

A popular alternative to the practice of buying and selling copyright licences is Creative Commons (CC).

CC licences are free legal tools that copyright owners can use to allow others to reuse their work in certain ways. Attribution (BY) is a condition of all CC licences.

CC licenses only apply to copyright. Trademarks, patents, privacy and publicity rights and other intellectual property rights still apply and should be considered before using CC licensed works or applying CC licences.

Public Domain dedication

Copyright owners can also use the CC public domain dedication tool (CC0) to waive all their rights under copyright law.