Intellectual Property
Portfolio rights / licence-back
After you assign the rights, the work legally belongs to the client, so showing it in your portfolio can technically be infringement unless you reserved the right. A short licence-back keeps your ability to display and talk about the work you made. This is easy to agree and rarely controversial for non-confidential projects.
What to look for
Whether, after assigning IP, the freelancer keeps the right to show the work in a portfolio, case study or marketing. Once rights are assigned, using the work without a reserved licence can itself be infringement.
How Clause rates it
RedFull assignment with no licence-back and an express ban on the freelancer displaying or referencing the work, so you cannot even show it in your portfolio.
AmberThe contract is silent on portfolio use, which after a full assignment leaves your right to display the work uncertain.
GreenThe freelancer expressly retains a non-exclusive licence to display and reference the work for self-promotion (subject to reasonable confidentiality carve-outs).
Wording you can ask for
Suggested redline
The Freelancer retains a perpetual, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to reproduce and display the deliverables in the Freelancer's portfolio, case studies and marketing, provided no Client confidential information is disclosed.
See this on your own contract.
Paste your contract and watch these rules light up your own clauses.