Instruments of Service

Glossary

Any expression, whether tangible or intangible, of creative work performed by a design professional for a project, such as:

Instruments of service are also known as design documents.

Ownership of a project's instruments of service is an important point of contract negotiation because typically:

Owners want to:
- preserve a project's distinctive qualities by preventing their use in another owner's projects; and
- retain the right to replicate the work without paying additional fees to the design professional.
Design professionals want to:
- protect their artistic expression from modification or duplication;
- continue to receive compensation for their work; and
- control the design's implementation in other projects to minimize the risk of liability for misapplication of, or errors in, the design, for which the design professional may otherwise be liable.

For additional information on copyright and ownership of instruments of service provisions in construction agreements, see Owner-Architect Agreement for Design-Bid-Build: Owner's Drafting Checklist: Copyright and Ownership of Design Documents.

Instruments of Service | Practical Law