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Intellectual Property

IP assignment timing (on payment vs on creation)

This clause decides who owns the work and from what moment. If ownership passes before you are paid, a non-paying client can legally use your work while you have lost your only real leverage. Tying the transfer to full payment is the common way freelancers keep a hold on the work until the money arrives.

What to look for

The exact moment intellectual property in the work transfers to the client. Look for whether rights pass 'on creation' or 'on delivery' versus 'on receipt of full payment', and whether the freelancer keeps ownership until paid.

How Clause rates it

RedAll IP transfers to the client on creation or on delivery regardless of payment, so the client can own and use the work while an invoice is still unpaid; or an assignment of rights in anything the freelancer creates 'during the term', sweeping in unrelated work.
AmberTransfer timing is unstated or ambiguous, leaving it unclear whether you retain leverage until you are paid.
GreenIP assigns to the client only on receipt of full payment, with the freelancer retaining ownership until then, and the assignment is limited to the specific deliverables.

Wording you can ask for

Suggested redline 
The Freelancer retains all intellectual property rights in the deliverables until the Client has paid all sums due in full. On receipt of full payment, the Freelancer assigns to the Client the intellectual property rights in the final deliverables produced specifically for the Client under this agreement.

The UK angle

In the UK an assignment of copyright must be in writing and signed to be effective (Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, s.90); until assignment the freelancer as author is the first owner of copyright in commissioned work.

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