Passing Down Your IP: Copyright Patents Publicity Rights and Estate Planning

58 questions on passing down your IP, answered and cited by the UpLaw editorial team.

• Are streaming libraries and app purchases inheritable?
• Can a creator leave copyrights to whomever they want?
• Can an estate file a patent application on the decedent's invention?
• Does a copyright die when its author does?
• Does selling a painting transfer its copyright?
• How can a valuable patent die quietly in an estate?
• How can copyrights be carved up in an estate plan?
• How does an IP holding company help a brand — and how can it destroy one?
• How does death change the tax character of a copyright?
• How does trademark succession actually work?
• How does work made for hire affect what a creator can bequeath?
• How do patents pass at death?
• How do prenuptial agreements interact with a creator's IP?
• How do royalty contracts differ from the IP they license?
• How do Sections 203 and 304 differ?
• How do state post-mortem publicity regimes differ?
• How long does a copyright last, and why does that matter to heirs?
• How should an estate plan handle the termination right?
• How should a plan protect trade secrets after death?
• How should the business-side IP be handled in that same plan?
• Is a will enough for valuable IP, or is a trust needed?
• Should a creator gift copyrights during life or leave them at death?
• What are IDGTs and GRATs, and how do they interact with IP?
• What are the first four steps of an IP estate-planning checklist?
• What are the last four steps of an IP estate-planning checklist?
• What can a will do for IP, and where does it fall short?
• What concrete losses follow from an untended digital layer?
• What did Ajemian v. Yahoo! decide about fiduciary access to email?
• What does a layered plan look like for a multi-hyphenate creator?
• What five steps handle the digital and IP-bearing layer?
• What happens to IP that is not addressed in an estate plan?
• What is income in respect of a decedent, and how does it affect royalties?
• What is the copyright termination right, and why can no will redirect it?
• What is the derivative-works exception to termination?
• What is the difference between catalogue and content under RUFADAA?
• What is the first task in IP estate planning?
• What is the organizing idea behind IP estate planning?
• What is the right of publicity?
• What is the RUFADAA priority order for digital assets?
• What mechanics are required to actually exercise termination?
• What should a creator do about publicity rights in an estate plan?
• What three approaches value intellectual property for an estate?
• What trademark deadlines can silently kill a registration in an estate?
• Who owns a freelance article inside a magazine?
• Who owns the termination interest after an author's death?
• Why can a trademark not be inherited apart from its business?
• Why can termination rights resurface a generation after a deal?
• Why does a beneficiary designation or buy-sell agreement matter more than a will?
• Why does neglected IP die in a way real estate does not?
• Why does the IRS scrutinize IP valuations?
• Why do patents run the other way on lifetime transfers?
• Why is a creator's own copyright not a capital asset?
• Why is a patent a "melting ice cube"?
• Why is a revocable trust often the better vehicle for IP?
• Why is a trade secret the most fragile asset in an estate?
• Why is domicile at death an estate-planning variable for publicity rights?
• Why is intellectual property the most overlooked asset in an estate?
• Why must every royalty contract's terms be read before assuming a bequest works?