I attended a webinar hosted by AIGA called Design Contracts: What you don’t know could hurt you. They had 2 guest speakers, Linda Joy Kattwinkel and Shel Perkins. Linda is an attorney who has an undergraduate degree in Graphic design and after they studied law in Hasting, San Francisco. she now specializes in intellectual property working with issues related to copyright and trademark. Shel Perkins works as a management consultants. They talked about the importance of having a thorough written contract between two parties (Designer & client) because it can save you lot of hassle if you do get into a legal dispute. They talked about laws regarding to intellectual property like having a written assignment of copyright because oral assignment would not be valid. Always use standard contract language with detailed terms and conditions which can help you avoid lot of problems. They also talked about the process and steps to research and develop a contract for you as a designer and the client. I thought this was an excellent event covering a very important topic. I think everyone should watch this to at least get a basic knowledge about contracts. The speakers were thorough with their presentation and they also shared their contact info in the end. 
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