Bearing the Burden

(There will be only one other article this week.)

As a business owner, if you purchase the services of any professional freelance creative, you will be expected to indemnify the creative consultant against any lawsuits.

Why?

The freelance consultant is not able to research every industry and be aware of all the players in your competition. It is your responsibility to know whether or not what you are asking the freelancer to produce will infringe upon the trademarks and brand rightss of your competition.

Some business owners ask freelancers to use work which has been produced by the competition as a model. What parts of that model are protected by law? The owner who hires the creative needs to know that and not expect the competitor to be friendly if he discovers that his marketing materials are being pirated.

Jessica Matthews wrote: "Indemnify This."