Instrument of transfer

Design is a service. Ownership is a document.

Your logo package pays for the work. This is the separate, project-specific instrument that assigns LogoOrbit’s copyright in the approved final mark to your business in signed writing, and authorises public commercial use from a stated effective date.

Request the certificate - $499 Read the specimen PDF

One-time: No renewal, no royalty
Worldwide: Full term of copyright
Signed: By both parties, on paper

Prices exclude California sales tax of 8.25%, added at invoice.

LogoOrbit · Legal Compliance Department

Copyright Assignment &
Commercial Use Certificate

An instrument of transfer executed under 17 U.S.C. § 204(a)

Certificate ID: SAMPLE-000000
Instrument: Assignment of copyright
Assignee
Project / order
Effective date

Section 3 — Assignment of copyright

Subject to Section 2, the Assignor irrevocably assigns to the Assignee all of the Assignor’s right, title and interest in the Work, including the exclusive rights to reproduce, adapt, distribute, display and otherwise exploit the Work throughout the world for the full term of copyright.

Specimen. Every client field is a placeholder, and the file is unsigned and watermarked.

Two purchases, one project

Paying a designer is not the same as acquiring a right

Under U.S. law a copyright generally moves only by a writing signed by the owner. Until that writing exists, the studio that drew the mark still holds the copyright in it — however much the design itself cost. Here is the line between the two, written out.

Your logo package

The design fee buys the work

Original concepts drawn for your business
Revisions until the mark is right
Master files for print, web and social
Permission to review and approve internally

What it does not buy

Public or commercial use of the final mark
Any transfer of our copyright in it

The $499 certificate

The instrument buys the right

The copyright in the approved final mark, assigned to a named entity
Written authorisation for public, commercial use worldwide
The right to apply for copyright registration in your own name
A moral-rights waiver, so adapting your own logo is your decision
Exhibit A: the mark, approved version, files, colours and typography, itemised
Stated exclusions, so the boundaries are on paper rather than assumed
A Certificate ID and effective date for your records

Add the certificate to my project

Anatomy of the instrument

Ten sections and an exhibit. Nothing behind a contact form.

Most studios describe their ownership paperwork. Read ours instead — section by section, in the certificate’s own words, with what each one actually means for you underneath it.

Wording taken from the public sample, so this page cannot drift from the document it describes. Your own certificate carries the same sections around your project, order number and file schedule.

LogoOrbit · Legal Compliance Department

Copyright Assignment &
Commercial Use Certificate

An instrument of transfer executed under 17 U.S.C. § 204(a)

Section 1 of 10

Definitions

“Work” means only the approved final logo artwork specifically identified in Exhibit A, together with the listed deliverables. “Unused Concepts” means drafts, rejected directions, sketches and alternatives not listed in Exhibit A. “Third-Party Materials” means fonts, stock assets, software, templates or other material owned or licensed by someone other than the Assignor.

In plain English

Three defined terms carry the whole document. Everything that follows either grants you the Work, or explains why Unused Concepts and Third-Party Materials are not part of it. If you read one clause slowly, read this one — it is the clause that decides what the other nine are talking about.

Chain of title

How the mark gets from our desk to your name

1Step 01
The mark is approved
You sign off one final design. That mark, and the files that carry it, become the subject of Exhibit A. Drafts and rejected routes stay outside the transfer.
2Step 02
Both fees are settled
The project balance and the separate $499 certificate fee are paid. Until then the conditions in Section 2 are not met and nothing moves.
3Step 03
The instrument is executed
Our legal desk issues the project-specific certificate with its ID. Both parties sign, electronically or in wet ink. This signature is the transfer.
4Step 04
The rights are yours
From the effective date the mark is yours to use publicly and commercially, worldwide, for the full term — with no renewal and no royalty back to us.

Step three is the one that carries legal weight. A transfer of copyright ownership generally has to be in writing and signed by the owner of the rights being transferred — see 17 U.S.C. § 204 and the U.S. Copyright Office’s Copyright Basics circular.

Read this before you buy

This is not a government filing, and we will never imply that it is

Three different documents get called “copyrighting my logo”. Only one of them is what we issue. Here is the honest comparison, including the parts that send you somewhere other than us.

What this page sells

This certificate

$499 · issued by us

What it is: A private, signed instrument transferring our copyright in your final logo to you
Who issues it: LogoOrbit’s legal desk, for your specific project
What it gives you: Ownership of the mark, the right to use it commercially, and the right to register it in your own name
What it is not: It is not a government record and it creates no public register entry
How long it takes: Issued and signed within a few business days of approval and payment

Copyright Office registration

Government fee · optional, later

What it is: A public record of a copyright claim, held by the U.S. Copyright Office
Who issues it: The U.S. Copyright Office — a government body, not a design studio
What it gives you: A public record, plus remedies that can matter if you ever have to sue
What it is not: It does not, by itself, move ownership from us to you — a signed transfer does that
How long it takes: Months, and it is filed by whoever owns the work at the time of filing

USPTO trademark

From $599 + $350 per class + government fee

What it is: Registration of a brand name or mark for use in commerce in specific classes
Who issues it: The United States Patent and Trademark Office
What it gives you: Rights against others trading under a confusingly similar mark
What it is not: It is a different right entirely — it says nothing about who drew the artwork
How long it takes: Typically eight to eighteen months, and it starts with a clearance search

Thinking about the third column? Our trademark filing service handles the clearance search and the USPTO application separately — and we will tell you when it is not worth filing yet.

On the record

Read all four pages before you decide.

The specimen is the whole instrument: the certificate face, the ten sections, and the Exhibit A schedule with its initial blocks. It is published without a form in front of it so your own lawyer can read it before you spend anything.

SAMPLE-000000the specimen ID · yours carries a real one and an effective date

Download the specimen Ask the legal desk

Every client field in the specimen is a placeholder, and no client artwork appears in it. It is incomplete, unsigned, visibly watermarked, transfers nothing, and is not a certificate issued by the U.S. Copyright Office or any other government authority. PDF, US Letter, 4 pages.

Certificate FAQs

Questions the legal desk actually gets

Because they are two different things being bought. The package pays a studio to create original artwork. This instrument moves a property right from our balance sheet to yours, is drafted for your specific project, is checked and signed by our legal desk, and is the document you would rely on years later. Plenty of clients only ever need the first. Everyone who intends to trade publicly under the mark needs the second.

Internally, while you review and decide, yes. Public and commercial use is authorised once the project is paid in full and this certificate has been completed and signed. If you have a launch date, tell us early and we will have the instrument ready to sign the day the design is approved.

No, and we will not let that be unclear. This is a private transfer document between two parties, which is how ownership of a copyright actually moves under U.S. law — a transfer generally has to be in a writing signed by the owner. Registration with the U.S. Copyright Office is a separate, optional public filing you can make afterwards, as the owner, once this instrument has made you the owner.

The legal entity that will trade under the mark. If your company already exists, use its registered name exactly as it appears on the incorporation paperwork. If it does not exist yet, either wait or put it in your own name and plan a second assignment into the company later. Tell the legal desk which you want before the certificate is drawn up — changing the assignee after signature means issuing a fresh instrument.

No. It is a one-time fee for an outright assignment, for the full term of copyright, worldwide. There is no licence to renew, no royalty, no usage cap and no category we hold back. The only things outside the transfer are the ones written into the exclusions clause: rejected concepts, and third-party fonts or stock that were never ours to give.

It is disclosed in the certificate rather than glossed over. A typeface used inside a logotype is usually converted to outlines, and the resulting artwork is assigned to you — but the font software itself stays under its foundry licence, and we say so on the face of the document. If you would rather avoid the question entirely, ask for a hand-drawn wordmark at the design stage.

Please do. That is exactly why the specimen PDF is published on this page with no gate in front of it — download it, send it to your counsel, and come back with questions. If your lawyer wants a change to the wording for your project, write to the legal desk and we will tell you plainly whether we can accommodate it.

Ready to put the mark in your name?

Send your order number and the exact legal name that should own the final logo. Our legal desk drafts the project-specific instrument, and you read it in full before anyone signs anything.

Request the certificate - $499 Ask the legal desk first

Prices exclude California sales tax of 8.25%, added at invoice. LogoOrbit prepares this instrument for its own design projects. It is not a substitute for advice from a lawyer admitted in your jurisdiction on your own facts.