Who owns the artwork on your cups? Copyright when someone else designed it

A logo drawn by a freelance designer, a branding agency or a member of staff reaches a printer as a file. Whether the person sending it owns the copyright in the artwork depends on who made it and on what was agreed. This article sets out what the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 says about authorship and first ownership, how ownership is transferred, and what the Branded Cups pages we read say about artwork. It is general information, not legal advice.

The author is the first owner

Section 9(1) of the Act says the author of a work is the person who creates it. Section 11(1) says the author of a work is the first owner of any copyright in it, subject to the provisions that follow. GOV.UK says copyright protects original artistic work, including illustration and photography, automatically: nobody applies for it, and there is no register of copyright works in the UK. It says copyright prevents people from copying the work and from distributing copies of it, whether free of charge or for sale. In our reading, a drawn logo or illustration falls within the artistic work GOV.UK describes, though we did not read the Act's definition of an artistic work.

When the artwork was made by an employee

Section 11(2) says that where a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work is made by an employee in the course of his employment, his employer is the first owner of any copyright in the work, subject to any agreement to the contrary. In our reading, a logo drawn by a salaried designer as part of the job falls within that rule, so it starts out as the employer's. Section 11(2) speaks of an employee. In our reading, nothing in sections 9 and 11 makes a client the first owner of a design simply because it paid an outside designer or agency for it.

When a freelancer or an agency made it

Section 90(1) says copyright is transmissible by assignment. Section 90(2) says an assignment may be partial: it can be limited to some of the things the owner has the exclusive right to do, or to part of the period for which the copyright lasts. Section 90(3) says an assignment is not effective unless it is in writing signed by or on behalf of the assignor. GOV.UK says, in plain terms, that you will need to write and sign a document, sometimes called an assignment, to show a sale or transfer has taken place.

Section 91(1) covers copyright that does not exist yet. Where an agreement about future copyright is signed by or on behalf of the prospective owner and purports to assign it, the copyright vests in the assignee once it comes into existence, if the assignee would then be entitled as against all other persons to require that. In our reading, a signed brief or contract made before the designer starts can therefore settle ownership of the finished artwork, and it is easier to sign it then than after the cups are printed.

An assignment is one route. GOV.UK also says the owner of copyright can license the use of the work and decide how it is used. In our reading, a licence for a cup order should name printing on cups and the quantities and period the buyer needs. We did not read case law on implied licences, which can matter where nothing was agreed in writing.

Moral rights

GOV.UK says an author can keep or waive moral rights, which include the right to be identified as the author, the right to object to how the work is presented, for example if it is derogatory or damaging to the author or their reputation, and the right to object to changes made to the work. In our reading, a buyer who expects to change a logo for printing, for example by simplifying a full-colour mark to the single colour some cups use, can ask the designer to address moral rights in the same document.

Artwork made by software

Section 9(3) says that for a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work which is computer-generated, the author is taken to be the person by whom the arrangements necessary for the creation of the work are undertaken. The Act defines what counts as computer-generated in another section, which we did not read, and we did not read guidance on how section 9(3) applies to any particular tool. Anyone whose artwork came from a generator and who needs certainty about ownership should take advice.

What the Branded Cups pages say

The terms and conditions, last updated on 10 October 2026, say a customer must have the necessary rights to use and supply logos, images and text, and that a customer's own artwork remains subject to the customer's rights and those of its owners. The same section says website content and designs owned or licensed by Branded Cups are protected by intellectual property rights, without mentioning the design service. The artwork and design service page describes a paid service that creates custom-made designs for a brand, with on-screen visuals for approval and two sets of amendments included. Neither page says who owns the copyright in artwork created by the design service, and this article does not say. A buyer for whom that matters can ask the team through the contact page before commissioning.

Before you send the file

Three questions are worth settling for each element of the artwork. Who made it: an employee, a freelancer, an agency, a supplier's design service or a piece of software. Is there a signed document that assigns the copyright or licenses its use for printing on cups. And does the file include anything made by someone else, such as a photograph, a typeface or a sponsor's mark, which our guide to permission and the registered symbol on printed cups covers. When the file is settled, the promotional cups page and the reusable event cups range show the formats it can be printed on, and the product templates give the artwork layout for each size.

Where this stands

This was checked on 1 November 2026. The pages for sections 9, 11, 90 and 91 report no known outstanding effects. The GOV.UK guide carries a last public update of 18 November 2015 in its metadata, and the statements taken from it, on automatic protection, the absence of a register, the acts copyright prevents, licensing, assignment and moral rights, are GOV.UK's own and are attributed to it above.