Intellectual Property Rights for Translations

By this article, we would like to emphasize that Crowdin does not participate in the process of transferring any intellectual property rights between the parties (from and among project participants, translators and project owners). The responsibility for retaining/acquiring intellectual property rights rests solely with the project owner or responsible manager. Depending on whether the project is designated as a private or public, the process of the intellectual property rights transfer/license might differ. Some of the examples are listed below which you may find useful.

THIS IS NOT A LEGAL ADVICE. It is strongly recommended that an appropriate legal advice shall be obtained from a legal counsel from the applicable jurisdiction.

Public Projects with Open Join Policy

In the public project which the translators can join without a confirmation from the project owner or manager, the project owner or manager may want to post a sufficient notice with respect to the intellectual property rights emphasizing which party is the owner of the intellectual property rights and whether the intellectual property rights, including rights to translations, are transferred/licensed to the project owner or manager and terms of such transfer/license.

Public Projects with Moderated Join Policy

In the public project that has a moderated join policy, the translators can join the project only after confirmation of the project owner or manager. For these projects, when a request from the translator to join the project is received, the project owner or manager may make the approval of the request conditional upon execution of the agreement with respect to the ownership of the intellectual property rights. The work flow may take the following steps:

The translator requests a confirmation to join the project. The project owner or responsible manager shares the appropriate intellectual property agreement with the translator. Upon execution of the agreement by the translator, the project manager grants access to the project.

Private Projects

In the private project, the project owner or responsible manager may want to ensure that the appropriate agreements with respect to the ownership of the intellectual property rights are executed before the translator is invited to participate in the project.

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