Who Owns Your Logo? The Brand Identity Handover Checklist

Most companies find out who owns their logo at the worst possible moment: the signage contractor asks for a vector file, the new website team needs an SVG, or a distributor wants the brand pack, and the only person who has the master files is a freelancer who left three years ago. The invoice was paid, yet the company cannot open, edit or prove it holds the rights to its own mark.

This guide covers two things: what you should receive and sign at the end of an identity project, and what to do if a former designer or agency still holds the files. It is practical guidance, not legal advice. The rules differ by country and change over time, so check your contract and your situation with a lawyer before you rely on any of it.

Paying for a logo does not automatically mean you own it

A logo is usually protected as an original work, and the person who creates it is generally treated as its author. Whether the rights move to the company that commissioned it depends on the law of the country and, above all, on what the parties wrote down. Paying the invoice settles the fee. It does not, on its own, always settle the rights.

Ownership has three layers that buyers often treat as one:

• The rights in the artwork — the copyright, or more precisely the economic rights to reproduce, adapt and use the design.
• The files — the editable masters that let anyone else work with the design. You can hold the rights and still lack the files, or hold the files without the rights.
• The trademark — a separate registration that protects the mark as a commercial identifier. Copyright in the artwork and a registered trademark are different rights, filed and enforced in different ways.

A complete handover deals with all three. Our guide to what each identity budget level buys covers trademark readiness at the scoping stage; this article focuses on the end of the project.

The default rules in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt

Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt do not share the same starting point. The table summarises what the law texts or published legal analysis say, as reviewed in October 2026.

Two further points apply across all three. First, moral rights stay with the author. The UAE decree-law describes them as not subject to assignment (Article 5), and Egypt’s law makes any disposal of moral rights null and void (Articles 143 and 145). What a company acquires is the economic rights, which is what it needs to use and adapt the logo commercially. Second, both laws set a shorter term for works of applied art: the economic rights lapse after 25 years under the UAE decree-law (Article 20) and Egypt’s law (Article 164). Whether a particular logo would be treated as applied art, and how that interacts with a registered trademark, are questions to put to a lawyer rather than assume.

The file handover: what a complete package contains

A logo delivered as a PNG and a PDF is a picture of a logo, not an identity. The test is simple: could a new supplier, with no contact with the original designer, reproduce your brand correctly on a website, a signboard, a vehicle and a packaging run? If not, the handover is incomplete.

Beyond the formats, check that each logo version is there: primary and secondary lockups, the Arabic and English versions and the bilingual lockup (see what a bilingual identity system includes), horizontal and stacked arrangements, the symbol on its own, and full-colour, single-colour, black and reversed (white) versions. Text in the logo should be converted to outlines in the export files so it displays correctly on machines without the font, with an editable version kept in the master.

Ask for a clear naming convention (for example, brand-logo-primary-en-fullcolour-rgb.svg) and a single shared folder with a version date. Files that live only in the designer’s email history will be lost again.

Colour, fonts and third-party elements

Colour specifications for every output

Screens and physical materials reproduce colour differently. Adobe’s Illustrator colour documentation explains that monitors mix light in RGB, that CMYK is used for process inks, and that some colours visible on a monitor cannot be reproduced on paper and vice versa. Each brand colour therefore needs a set of values, not one:

• HEX and RGB for websites, social media and presentations.
• CMYK for process-colour production, ideally with the colour profile the values were set in.
• Pantone references where spot colours are used, with both coated and uncoated versions. X-Rite explains that the C and U suffixes refer to the paper, and that the same colour looks different on each because of how the ink sits on or absorbs into the surface.
• Paint, vinyl or material references for signage and fleet, if those were specified.

Font licences

The typeface in your logo is someone else’s property. Adobe’s font licensing page states that a logo can be registered, but the fonts or typeface designs used in it cannot. The handover should list every brand font, where it came from and what licence covers it. If the designer used a subscription font, your team, your website developer and your suppliers may each need their own licence; Adobe’s terms, for example, do not permit font files to be passed to another user, and editable documents will show missing fonts once a subscription ends.

Stock images, icons and illustrations

If the identity includes stock photographs, icon sets or illustration packs, ask for a list of each item, its source and its licence. A standard stock licence may not cover use inside a logo or in large production quantities. The licence terms of each source decide this, so check them.

The guidelines document should bring all of this together. Our article on what brand guidelines must contain covers the contents in detail.

What to sign: the paperwork that makes ownership clear

The files prove you have the design. The paperwork proves you have the rights. At the end of the project, ask for a short signed document, or a clause in the main agreement, that covers the following. A lawyer in your market should review the wording.

1. Assignment of economic rights in the final approved logo and identity to your company, taking effect on payment. Under the UAE and Egyptian texts above, the document should name the rights transferred and state the purpose, duration and territory; “all rights, worldwide, for the full term of protection, for any commercial purpose” is the kind of scope to discuss with your lawyer.
2. Clarity on rejected concepts. State whether unused concepts stay with the designer. Most companies do not need them, but they should not reappear for a competitor that looks like you.
3. A statement of originality confirming the work was created for you and is not based on a template, a stock logo or another client’s mark. If AI tools were used, our note on who owns an AI-generated logo explains why that matters.
4. A third-party schedule listing fonts, images and icons, and the licence for each.
5. A delivery schedule naming every file format and version from the section above, so “delivered” has a fixed meaning.
6. Portfolio use. Designers usually want to show the work. Agree whether that is allowed and from what date, especially if the identity is confidential before launch.

Consider recording the work with the relevant authority where that is available. In Saudi Arabia, registration with SAIP now creates a rebuttable presumption of ownership, according to the analyses above, and the UAE government portal notes that the Ministry of Economy registers intellectual works and accepts applications online. Trademark filing is a separate process.

At RX Designer, clients receive the final and source files and the rights at handover; that is the standard every buyer should expect from a brand identity supplier, whoever they choose.

When a former designer still holds the files

This is common and usually fixable without conflict; often the files are simply sitting in an old archive. Work through the steps in order.

1. Collect what you have. Search old email threads, shared drives, the website’s media library and your suppliers’ records. Signage companies and packaging suppliers often keep the vector files they received. A vector PDF from a past job may be enough to work from, though it is not a substitute for the rights.
2. Read the original agreement. Find the quotation, contract, invoice or email chain. Check what it says about deliverables and rights. If it says nothing, the default rules in your market apply, and the table above shows how much they differ.
3. Ask, in writing, for two things. The master files, and a short signed assignment of the economic rights. Be specific: list the formats you need. Offer to pay a reasonable fee for the time it takes to locate and package old files; that is a fair request and usually the fastest route.
4. If the designer is unreachable or refuses, take legal advice before you act. It is tempting to have someone redraw the logo from a JPEG. A redraw solves the file problem, but it may not solve the rights problem: if the rights were never transferred, a close redraw could still be treated as a copy or adaptation of the original work. Ask a lawyer before you commission one.
5. Decide whether to recover or replace. If the existing mark is weak, poorly built or legally uncertain, this may be the moment for a planned refresh with a clean contract, rather than an expensive recovery of a logo you were going to change anyway.
6. Close the gap for good. Once recovered, store the files in a company-owned folder, name an internal owner, and make the handover checklist part of every future design contract.

The one-page handover checklist

Use this at the final meeting of any identity project. If an item is missing, it is easier to fix while the designer is still engaged.

• Editable master files (AI or equivalent) for every logo version
• Vector PDF, EPS and SVG exports; transparent PNGs in agreed sizes
• Arabic, English and bilingual lockups; full-colour, single-colour, black and reversed versions
• HEX, RGB, CMYK and Pantone (coated and uncoated) values for every brand colour
• A list of fonts with their source and licence; licences purchased in the company’s name where needed
• A schedule of stock images, icons and illustrations with licences
• Brand guidelines as a PDF and as an editable file
• Editable templates: stationery, presentations, social media and document templates
• A signed assignment of economic rights, reviewed by a lawyer
• A statement of originality and an agreed portfolio-use clause
• All files stored in a company-owned location, with a named internal owner

If you do one thing this week, open the folder where your logo files live and check it against this list. Then ask whoever holds the masters for the missing files and a signed assignment while the relationship is still friendly; both are far easier to get now than in the middle of a signage or website deadline.