Clip art is available from software companies and websites. Before using any clip art, you should read the “Terms and Conditions” carefully, as the licences limit the ways in which the clip art may be used. If there is a statement that says the uses of the clip art are limited to private, non-commercial uses, then you should seek permission before incorporating clip art into anything you are creating for commercial purposes.

You should also note that a person cannot give you a valid licence to use clip art unless they own the rights, or have obtained the permission of the copyright owner. If you consider the copyright owner may not have granted permission for the image to be made available on the website, you should not use it.

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There have been a number of cases in which designs for individual letters have been held to be “artistic works” for the purposes of copyright. Copyright in many popular typefaces has, however, expired, where these were created and used by people who died more than fifty years ago.

Nonetheless, many popular typeface designs are still in copyright. Therefore, if you are drawing lettering by hand in a particular font (or recreating the font style in, for example, a computerised drawing program), it is likely that you will need permission from the relevant copyright owner.

If you are using a mechanical device such as a typewriter to create a document in a particular font, it is likely that you have an implied licence to reproduce the typeface in the documents you are generating.

However, if you are generating documents or designs using a computer, the issue is likely to be whether you are licensed to use the software that includes and generates the particular typeface. In these cases, check the licence agreement which accompanies the software, or any statements from the relevant company (for example, on its website, or in the “readme” files that often accompany software). These are likely to state what you can do with the software and the font/s. If you are outsourcing the printing of documents, it may be that the printing company will need its own licensed copy of the relevant font software.

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The client is not automatically entitled to original artwork, files or other material associated with the production of the design. Ownership of these materials is not dependent on who owns copyright, but on what (if anything) the contract says about the issue. If ownership of, or access to, the design materials is not directly addressed in the contract, there could be an implied term that you give the client access, if this is necessary for the purpose of the contract to be realised. If the client doesn’t need access to the design materials for the project to be completed, you may have no obligation to hand the materials over.

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The typesetting and typographical arrangement of an entire book, brochure or magazine will be protected as a “published edition”. This is a narrow and short copyright (only lasting for 25 years), owned by the publisher.

It is not clear, however, whether the layout for a specific publication – or a general template for a layout – may also be protected as an “artistic work”. We are not aware of any Australian cases on this, and there are conflicting British cases. If a layout or template were protected, the first owner of this copyright would usually not be the publisher, but the relevant graphic artist or his or her employer.

Generally, a claim that a particular layout is protected by copyright as an artistic work is likely to have a greater chance of success in relation to a more elaborate layout (such as in a magazine) than in relation to the typical layout of a book. As always, the best way to deal with any possible conflicts over the downstream use of what you create for clients is to make sure your client agreement specifically addresses who will own rights, and what each party’s entitlements will be in relation to a layout or template.

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Posters and brochures may contain more than one copyright work – for example, each photograph and illustration may be a separate copyright work, and the text may be another copyright work. The works may have different authors, but in most cases the authors will not be identifiable. If the work was first published anonymously and the identity of the author cannot be ascertained on reasonable inquiry, then the period of copyright protection is measured from the year of publication (rather than the year of the author's death).

Copyright in a poster or brochure has expired if:

• it was published before 1955, AND

• any author (other than a photographer) whose identity can be ascertained died before 1955.

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