Owning my idea and his art

[Hodgie]

I am going to have someone draw a character to put on t shirts and continue to draw the character in different situations when I need him too. My question is, How do I word a contract that I want to be able to copyright/trademark the charater that he draws for me. I want to just be able to pay him each time he draws something for me and I want to own all the rights. How do I go about writing the contract out?

Any examples would be great.

Thanks
Roger

 

[Michael Wechsler]

The best way is to hire an intellectual property attorney. A simple contract can say that the work performed is a "work made for hire" and that you will own all rights in the characters drawn by the artist pursuant to the agreement. If there are rights that may not be owned by you, the artist agrees to sign them over to you and make efforts to transfer those rights.