First owner of copyright (Copyright Act s. 13)

A buyer meets this question over software, photos, videos and written content a business uses. Who made a work decides who owned it first, and ownership may have moved since. See how to do intellectual property due diligence when buying a business.

What s. 13 says

• Section 13(1): subject to the Act, the author of a work is the first owner.
• Section 13(3): where the author was employed under a contract of service or apprenticeship and made the work in the course of that employment, the employer is first owner in the absence of any agreement to the contrary, with a special rule for newspaper and magazine contributions.
• Section 13(4): no assignment of the right or grant of an interest in it is valid unless it is in writing signed by the owner of the right, or by the owner’s duly authorized agent.

What to check

Ask who made each important work and whether they were employees at the time, then ask for any signed assignments. The Canadian Intellectual Property Office says it does not verify or examine the claims made in registration applications and cannot guarantee ownership; under s. 53(2) a certificate of registration is evidence that the person registered is the owner, so ask what records lie behind it. See IP assignment.