A large corp has trade marked my artwork ...

I am not familiar with all the details of ownership, but as far as I am aware, you have the author rights over your own art work and they have to buy them out before they can trade mark it. But then again, it is a shady area and given they have their own in-house legal team, they might have used some alley or loophole that only they knew about in order to get your logo without having to buy your rights (like the lack of invoice to prove ownership, for instance - did you at least have a written request for the logo or sth?).

I am not an expert and author rights law is a very tricky one, so you should make sure you have evidence you did the artwork and then maybe search legal counsel.

Freelancers? Questions: Is a client allowed to trademark my artwork? :: Freelance UK

:D

I struggle to see the point of separating copyright from the design fees for something like a logo - especially if it isn't made absolutely clear that you are intending to retain ownership. What do you gain from retaining copyright? It's been designed for that company, so it's not as if you could use it elsewhere. I assume the motivation for retaining copyright is to try to ensure that the client comes to you for any other design work they require. I'd have thought the better way of retaining the client would be to win their trust, do a good job for them and build a mutually beneficial working relationship between client and supplier. Would it be better to be charging a fee that includes transfer of copyright and gives them the reassurance that they won't be liable for unknown hidden costs? If they want a logo creating it stands to reason that they're going to want to use it, so it's not as if future usage is something that you wouldn't have anticipated when you quoted for the design.

If the boot was on the other foot I'd feel very aggrieved to be told that I couldn't use a logo that I'd purchased in whatever way I wished to do so. As a result I'd be looking to go elsewhere for any further work as fast as possible, as I'd feel that the original fee I'd been quoted was deliberately misleading and had hidden the true cost. Sorry if I'm misinterpreting the facts or being harsh – it's the impression I get from what I've read though.

It's not unreasonable imho that a client should wish to explore trademark registration – in actual fact, it's advisable for them to do so. While you might have expected them to discuss this with you, they may be just seeing it as part of a normal process. It's understandable that they'd wish to get the trademark application underway as quickly as possible. If copyright is being transfered I'd normally assume that happens at the point of receiving payment, so perhaps things have been done out of turn, but it may be something that they've assumed you'd be happy to happen.

Sounds like a breakdown in communication at worst, to be honest. Without knowing the full details, I wonder if it might be more profitable for you (and certainly less hassle!) to not contest it but to build on the relationship with a view to doing future work for them. When and if that happens be clear what you're providing for the fee you're quoting.