April 8, 2020
16 Art Licensing Agent Agreement Essentials
Once you’ve found a licensing agent you want to work with, you’ll need to know what items must be in a contract between you and a licensing agent. It’s easy to get excited about the prospect of finally signing with an agent and forget to make sure that the contract is not only fair to both of you, but includes everything you need.
I remind you, this is not a legal document or intended to be legal advice. Instead, this as a guide to prepare yourself for understanding and negotiating the terms of your Art Licensing Agent Agreement.
Art Licensing Agent Agreements should include:
- Complete Contact Information-For both the agency and artist.
Grant of Rights-Also sometimes called the Appointment, it spells out what are you giving the agent the right to do, such as license, market and distribute your copyrighted artwork to manufacturers in certain product categories. a. Here you also define your ‘Works’, which describes the art pieces or collections included under the agreement. This is one of the most important areas, especially if you have multiple styles or prior collections/assets. b. This section is where the contract should note any restrictions to the general ‘Grant of Rights’ such as excluded product categories or existing deals with different conditions. - Term-List how long the term is with the starting and ending dates, plus the renewal terms and conditions (automatic, benchmarks or renegotiated renewal).
- Territory-Most agencies will want worldwide rights for several reasons, which might include: the ability for manufacturers to include internet sales, or because their marketing efforts may attract deals in other countries and the agent would prefer to handle those deals. Make your own judgment call as to what rights to give your agent based on their needs and reach; be sure to reserve any rights you can that won’t be actively used.
Courtesy of Jeanette Smith – All Art Licensing Blog @ http://blogjnet.wordpress.com/
