But the truth is, if you hire someone to create something for your business that person owns the rights to their creation. Yup, even if you paid them for it. It’s still legally theirs … and that means that they can limit the way you use it.

This is actually what’s happening to SweetWater Brewing Company in Atlanta right now.

Watch the video below for a rundown of the case AND how this type of thing can happen to you, too, and what you need to do now to prevent it.

Prefer to read? Here’s a quick synopsis:

In 1997, SweetWater hired a family friend to design their logo for $500. The SweetWater company was recently sold for $92 million dollars … and that family friend who designed the logo, said something like, “Look, I own the copyright to this artwork. I had given you a license to use it, but as of right now, I’m revoking that license. You do not have permission to use my artwork unless you pay me $31 million dollars.” Of course, SweetWater said, “Absolutely not,” and instead, filed a lawsuit against the designer.

Now, even though you might not have a brand worth $92 million dollars right now, your brand is worth something and it may be worth millions in the future.

When it comes to copyright law, it is important to understand that the creator owns the copyright. There is a way around that, but most people don’t know what it is.

So, my advice to you is to get familiar with copyright law. Understand how it works so that you can find out whether or not you even own the assets you’re using to build your business.

To help you out, I’ve created a copyright guide that explains everything you need to know about copyright. PLUS, a breakdown of how a Work For Hire works, what language you should put on all of your documents, AND how to file a copyright application.

If you do nothing else for your business today, grab this guide and let’s make sure that you own all of the assets you’re using, ok?