“Work Made for Hire” Agreements

employee files“Work Made for Hire” Agreements have been traditionally used as a means to ensure businesses who engage independent contractors are the owners of the contractor’s work product. Employers should be warned, however, that these types of agreements and arrangements can backfire. Firstly, under the Copyright Act, “Work Made for Hire” agreements do not always cover all types of work products. Also, these types of agreements may “result in the contractor being classified as an employee under state law”. The IRS has recently increased scrutiny of misclassification of workers, and has cracked down on improper classification of independent contractors.

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