This T&Cs-style website development contract has a very specific and narrow purpose: it is designed to be used by regular buyers of website development services as their standard T&Cs document for the purchase of those services. Accordingly, the template favours the interests of the customer over those of the developer.

The website development contract includes an assignment of the copyright and other IP rights in the website, from the developer to the customer. This gives rise to a technical issue of copyright law. The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 provides that “an assignment of copyright is not effective unless it is in writing signed by or on behalf of the assignor”. So, customers will want to ensure that their developers send to them a signed copy of the document.

The contract includes the following provisions:

(1) Definitions and interpretation
(2) Term
(3) The Services
(4) Customer obligations
(5) Delivery and acceptance
(6) Third Party Works
(7) Unlawful Content
(8) Charges and payment
(9) Intellectual Property Rights
(10) Warranties
(11) Limitations and exclusions of liability
(12) Data protection
(13) Confidentiality and publicity
(14) Termination
(15) Effects of termination
(16) General

The website development contract is 15 pages long (including the footnotes and cover sheet) and is provided in Word (.doc) format. You can see the first few sections of the contract here:

Sample Website Development Contract