Answer
Who owns the code when someone builds your MVP?
Short answer
Whoever the contract says, which is why it must say so explicitly. Under Australian law, a contractor generally retains copyright in what they create unless the agreement assigns it to you. Always require written assignment of all intellectual property, the repository transferred to your account, and deployment under your own hosting login.
This catches founders out more often than it should. Employment is different from contracting: work created by an employee in the course of their job generally belongs to the employer, but a contractor keeps copyright in their work by default. If your agreement is silent, you may have paid for something you do not own.
The practical consequences show up later — during due diligence, when an acquirer asks for a clean IP chain, or when you want to move the code somewhere else and discover you need permission.
There is a second, quieter version of the same problem: ownership of the code but not the accounts. If the hosting, the domain and the database sit in someone else's login, you are dependent on them regardless of what the contract says about copyright.
Ask for all four things in writing: assignment of IP, the repository in your account, hosting and domain in your name, and no licence fees or ongoing obligations.
The numbers
- Australian default for contractors
- The contractor retains copyright unless assigned in writing
- Australian default for employees
- The employer generally owns work created in the course of employment
- What to require
- Written IP assignment, repository transfer, hosting and domain in your name
- Common trap
- Owning the code but not the accounts it runs in
- Launch My MVP
- 100% ownership, repository transferred at handover, no licence fees, no lock-in
Worth knowing
This is general information, not legal advice. For anything you plan to raise money on or sell, have a lawyer review the agreement.
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