Who owns the portfolio: the designer or the company?

Question

Design

There is one designer who has been working for a long time and draws cool things.
Now he works with us.
He kindly agreed and gave permission to publish his work on the website of our company.
Attention to the question, who owns the portfolio? designer? or companies in which he worked before us?
If a designer writes a verse at work, it is the verse of the author, not the company, unless otherwise stated in the employment contract, right? Or are there nuances?
Is it possible to post his portfolio on our website or not?

Answer 1

What you have chosen by decision is no longer valid, now the following article of the Civil Code is in force in this case Article
1295.
Employee work ) belong to the author. 2. The exclusive right to an employee's work belongs to the employer , unless otherwise provided by the labor or other contract between the employer and the author.
If the employer, within three years from the day when the employee work was placed at his disposal, does not start using this work, does not transfer the exclusive right to it to another person, or does not inform the author about keeping the work secret, the exclusive right to the employee work belongs to the author.
If the employer, within the period provided for in the second paragraph of this paragraph, begins to use the employee's work or transfers the exclusive right to another person, the author has the right to remuneration. The author acquires the said right to remuneration also in the case when the employer has decided to keep the official work secret and for this reason has not started using this work within the specified period. The amount of remuneration, the conditions and procedure for its payment by the employer are determined by the agreement between him and the employee, and in the event of a dispute - by the court.
3. In the event that, in accordance with paragraph 2 of this article, the exclusive right to an official work belongs to the author, the employer has the right to use such a work in ways determined by the purpose of the official assignment and within the limits arising from the assignment, as well as publish such a work, if an agreement between him and the employee does not provide otherwise. At the same time, the right of the author to use the employee work in a way that is not determined by the purpose of the official task, as well as at least in a way determined by the purpose of the task, but beyond the limits arising from the employer’s task, is not limited.
The employer may, when using an official work, indicate his name or designation or require such indication.
But essentially nothing changes. The designer can refer to his work. You can indicate on your site that this is your designer's work (but not that it's your work) - this is not a use. About the use of "preview" on your site - a question, afaik, open. The court may or may not consider it to be exploitation. It is more likely that it will not count if the “preview” is the site itself in the frame, and not the image on your server. Or you can try to refer to the right to quote - you do not reproduce the entire site, but only part of it.

Answer 2

Article 14. Copyright in Service Works
1. Copyright in a work created in the course of the performance of official duties or an official task of an employer (a service work) shall belong to the author of the service work.
2. The exclusive rights to use an official work belong to the person with whom the author has an employment relationship (employer), unless otherwise provided in the contract between him and the author.
The amount of royalties for each type of use of an official work and the procedure for its payment are established by an agreement between the author and the employer.
3. The employer has the right to indicate his name in any use of the employee's work or demand such an indication.
4. The creation of encyclopedias, encyclopedic dictionaries, periodical and continuing collections of scientific papers, newspapers, magazines and other periodicals (paragraph 2 of Article 11 of this Law) in the performance of official duties or official assignment of the employer of encyclopedias, encyclopedic dictionaries, the provisions of this article do not apply.
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Answer 3

on the one hand, you yourself answered - it's a contract - or did he also draw in his spare time, like poetry, and not for that office?
on the other hand, in my opinion, the portfolio does not belong to anyone, it is like a resume, only in a different format. accordingly, the designer can show it to anyone as an example of their work. but the question is, how will you put them on your website - “our works”, “works of our designer”, ...? in the first case, not very fair.

Answer 4

As far as I understand (I'm not a lawyer), the question is how he worked in another studio. As an employee or under a separate contract (as a freelancer)?
If as an employee, then he can tell you “I did this while working in that studio.” Those. the work is his, but done internally.
If he worked under a separate contract, then his work. And he can say "these are my works, I sold them to that studio." In this case, you can post them on your own.
But it's strange, in fact, it's not you who did it. Portfolio is the result of your work.
And you want to show an example of how theoretically your designer can. This can be shown in meetings and in the office, but not on your website. This is the moral aspect.
What are you afraid of? What is your small portfolio? This has long been considered a minus. Or is this new designer just so cool that he tears up all your old work? In this case, Lebedev gave good advice - draw a couple of works for fictitious companies. If he's that cool, then there shouldn't be a problem. And the portfolio will honestly grow, and check the strength of the designer.

Answer 5

I'm not a designer, but I've been in a similar situation as a programmer. I discussed this issue with the previous company and we agreed on the next one - I can exhibit these works in my personal portfolio (including on a freelance site), but I cannot exhibit them within another web studio.
I think it's logical.

Answer 6

I work in a printing house. In such a case, we have a separate clause in the contract that the developed layout, as well as products produced from it, can be used by the printing house for self-promotion purposes - in the portfolio, at exhibitions, as samples when working with clients, etc.

Answer 7

There is a point of contention. Publication in a portfolio is in fact not a use of the work, which allows you to bypass Art. 14, if the transfer of the exclusive right to publish was not specified in the employment contract.
On the other hand, the publication in the portfolio can be recognized as being used for advertising purposes, which is already a violation of Art. 14. Whether or not this was used will be decided by the court.
If the designer did some orders as a freelancer, i.e. not on behalf of the company, you can safely publish such works.