Before you license a shoot
Who owns commissioned product photos, US and UK
Updated
Paying for a product shoot does not by itself make the brand the copyright owner. Both the US and UK statutes start with the photographer and move ownership only through employment or a signed writing.
In the US the photographer starts as the owner
The Copyright Office's guidance for photographers says "Generally, the author and initial copyright owner of a photograph is the person who “shoots” or “takes” the photo." Section 201(a) of Title 17 puts it as copyright that "vests initially in the author or authors of the work."
Source: US Copyright Office, What photographers should know about copyright
A commissioned shoot is a work made for hire only in narrow cases
Circular 30 says a specially ordered or commissioned work is a work made for hire only if it falls within one of nine listed categories and there is a written agreement between the party that commissioned it and the person who made it. A shoot by your own employee within the scope of the job is a work made for hire without those conditions.
Source: US Copyright Office, Circular 30: works made for hire
Otherwise ownership moves only by a signed writing: section 204(a) says a transfer "is not valid unless an instrument of conveyance, or a note or memorandum of the transfer, is in writing and signed by the owner of the rights conveyed".
Source: 17 U.S. Code section 204
In the UK the employer owns staff shoots, not freelance ones
The Act counts a photograph as an artistic work "irrespective of artistic quality", makes the person who creates a work its author, and gives the employer first ownership only where the work is made by an employee in the course of employment.
Source: Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, section 11
A freelance photographer's copyright reaches the brand only by assignment, and section 90(3) says "An assignment of copyright is not effective unless it is in writing signed by or on behalf of the assignor."
Source: Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, section 90
What to find before a buyer asks
For each shoot, look for the employment record or the signed assignment or work-for-hire clause. Images without either may still be licensable by the photographer rather than the brand, which is the first thing an AI buyer's lawyer will check. Every provision is on our ownership register.