Common use of Joint Authorship Clause in Contracts

Joint Authorship. For jointly authored papers, only one signature is required if all authors work for the same company; the paper thus is a work made for hire, the copyright rests with the employer rather than the individual authors, and anyone authorized by the employer may authorize the copyright transfer. When the authors work for different employers, a separate copyright transfer form must be signed by the authorized agent for each employer. When authors are self-employed, each must sign a separate copyright transfer form. Co-authors who are U.S. Government employees are not required to sign this form, but any co-authors outside the U.S. Government must sign Part A.