copyright: symbol designs..

[Evil Alice Corp]

i was asked to design a series of very simple abstract symbols that will be used in a psychology memory testing. i have to create about 50 of them. i'm being paid at an hourly rate.
there's a possibility that the psychology dept might want to have ownership over those designs. how would i go about charging that?
and also, what details and important information i must include in a contract? this is my first time dealing with stuff like this. any suggestions and help would be greatly appreciated.

[DaveGink]

My Opinion...

That's the type of job that if I were doing it, I would probably just automatically assign the rights to them upon payment-in-full. Unless you really see some value in retaining ownership. If you've already agreed to do this at an hourly rate you may be pretty much stuck...It would probably be tough coming back to the client and saying sorry, "now you need to pay for a rights buy-out on top of that". Especially if they are already assuming they will own the art. Hopefully, the rate you are charging is high enough to justify your giving them all-rights to do with it what they want.

Usage rights and Ownership should be discussed up-front before work begins. Most clients don't understand that they dont automatically "own" the work they pay you to do...and that technically they are paying for the right to use it. If it's not talked about first, they are gonna just assume it's theres to do with as they please.

Hope this helped a little.