Contractor IP assignment audit
This is the gap that surfaces during due diligence, at the worst possible moment: a buyer asks who owns the code, the designs or the drawings, and the honest answer turns out to be the contractor who produced them.
The register is finite work and it is far cheaper to build now than to reconstruct under a transaction timetable, because remedying a gap needs the contractor's cooperation and their willingness falls as your urgency rises.
What you get
- A list of every contractor engaged over the agreed period, from your payment records
- The engagement document held for each, and whether it addresses assignment at all
- A register mapping contractor, work produced, period and document status
- A gap list, ordered by how material the work produced is
- A written note of what is missing and who would need to be approached
SNJ Legal does not provide legal advice and does not assess whether any clause validly assigns anything, nor prepare assignment documents. The register establishes what paperwork exists; whether it does the job, and what to do about the gaps, is for your own external adviser.
Questions
Asked and answered
- Where does the contractor list come from?
- Your payment records, not memory. Accounts payable is the only source that is actually complete, and it is the first thing this engagement asks for.
- How far back should it go?
- Usually as far back as work that is still in use. That is agreed in the scoping call and written into the scope, because it is the main thing that moves the fee.
- What if there is nothing in writing for some of them?
- That is the most common finding and it is recorded plainly. A gap you know about is a different situation from one you discover during diligence.
Fee
from$2,400fixed after scopingex GST
- Contractor list built from payment records
- Register of work produced and documents held
- Gap list ordered by materiality
Background
On this problem
14.07.2026
Ownership
22.12.2026
Ownership
Also available
The other engagements
Governance document systems
One authoritative set of governance documents, versioned, with a register that stays current.
Terms and template libraries
One library, one current version, a log of every variation you have agreed to.
Employment document systems
Role-based document sets, issued consistently, with a record of what each person holds.