An intellectual property disclaimer template, also called an intellectual property release agreement, is a document that releases the intellectual property rights in an art piece, design, literary work, film, piece of music, symbol, or image to someone other than the person that created it. If the creator is comfortable giving away his/her rights to the art, and it being used in any way for any purpose, someone may acquire all rights, titles, and interest in and to the intellectual property.

This is not the same as a licensing agreement. The person that acquires these rights is not just licensing the intellectual property, as he/she can do anything he/she wants with the intellectual property.

The intellectual property release agreement lays out this release. The agreement should include as much detail about the work as possible so that if a dispute should arise, the rights and the specific work are clear. If a business is acquiring the rights to someone else’s creation, this document provides investors in the company with comfort that the rights to the intellectual property required to run the business have been transferred to the company completely and legally. After the transfer, the artist does not receive any money for the business’s use of his/her work.

In the United States, Intellectual Property is governed under the Copyright Act of 1976. There are no specific legal requirements as to what information or provisions must be included in a Disclaimer Agreement; however, a business should enlist the help of an intellectual property attorney in order to ensure that due diligence requirements are being met and the operation can run smoothly and legally.

Here is a list of provisions that should be included in your Assignment Agreement:

  1. Date
  2. The parties; who is acquiring the rights and who is disclaiming/releasing the rights
  3. A specific description of the business (if applies)
  4. A specific description of the intellectual property
  5. The assignment provision where the artist or employee agrees to assign or disclaim to the company all right, title and interest in and to the intellectual property
  6. Copyright provision regarding the protectability of the intellectual property
  7. No payment (royalty) will be paid to the artist or employee
  8. A provision statement that this agreement may be amended in the future, but only in writing
    1. The parties can agree to never amend this agreement if they would like
  9. A provision designating the law or jurisdiction that will apply if a conflict arises
  10. Signatures of both parties

GGF/OGF

If you are submitting documents to the GGF, both an intellectual property statement and a copyright statement have to be included.

Here is the copyright statement that must be included in all GGF documents:

“This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published and distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any kind, provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are included on all such copies and derivative works.”

“However, this document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing the copyright notice or references to the GGF or other organizations, except as needed for the purpose of developing Grid Recommendations in which case the procedures for copyrights defined in the GGF Document process must be followed, or as required to translate it into languages other than English.”

And here is the IPR notice that must be included in all GGF documents:

“The GGF takes no position regarding the validity or scope of any intellectual property or other rights that might be claimed to pertain to the implementation or use of the technology described in this document or the extent to which any license under such rights might or might not be available; neither does it represent that it has made any effort to identify any such rights. Copies of claims of rights made available for publication and any assurances of licenses to be made available, or the result of an attempt made to obtain a general license or permission for the use of such proprietary rights by implementers or users of this specification can be obtained from the GGF Secretariat.”

“The GGF invites any interested party to bring to its attention any copyrights, patents, or patent applications, or other proprietary rights which may cover technology that may be required to practice this recommendation. Please address the information to the GGF Executive Director.”

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