Copyright Notices Don’t Save You
If you’re delivering workshops, training, or frameworks to your clients—and you want to protect your ownership, you need more than a copyright notice.
In a recent workshop presented to Women in Consulting, I tackled a common misconception I hear from expert founders all the time: “If my slides have a copyright notice, doesn’t that protect me?”
The answer? Not if your client contract says otherwise.
Here’s the truth: A copyright notice puts the world on notice that you’re claiming ownership. But it does not override what’s in your client agreement.
Let’s break this down.
Your copyright notice does a few important things:
It tells the world who owns the content and when it was published.
It signals that the content isn’t in the public domain.
It discourages casual misuse.
But here’s what it doesn’t do:
It doesn’t grant or revoke rights.
It doesn’t act as a license.
It doesn’t override the contract your client signed.
And this is where so many expert-led businesses get tripped up.
If your client contract contains broad “work for hire” or IP assignment clauses and you sign it—you may be handing over ownership of your material, even if your name is on every slide.
Want to retain ownership of your content and still let your client use it? You need to grant a license, not give it all away.
A well-written contract should do a few key things:
Carve out your pre-existing materials as your intellectual property
Clearly state that you are granting a non-exclusive, non-transferable license to your client
Define how they can use it (e.g., internal only, time-limited, no derivatives)
Make the license conditional on full payment
Otherwise, you could be unintentionally giving clients the right to modify, reuse, or even resell your work.
If you’ve ever felt nervous about how your intellectual property might be reused, this is your signal to check what your contracts actually say, not just what you assume is “understood.”
I’ll leave you with this: Why are you relying on a copyright notice, when what you really need is a clear contract?
Let this be your reminder: Your work is valuable. Protect it accordingly.
P.S. And feel free to forward this newsletter to a colleague or share it on LinkedIn. Let’s help more experts navigate the legal, ethical, and operational implications of AI use in expert businesses.
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