Retaining Ownership for freelanced web design

I'm hiring a freelancer to design me a website for a project I'm quite serious about, so I'm interested in protecting it so that it doesn't get copied in the future.

Are there any contract templates available that anyone knows of, that I can use to cover myself - proving that the design is owned by me and that the freelancer no longer has any rights to it.

 

Try looking at authomark.com

I don't know if it is exactly what you are looking for but it allows you to register your site so that you can prove it was yours first.

 

Better do a NDA with your designer.

 

Are you paying the designer hourly?

Look into the laws concerning work-for-hire.

 

Not hourly, just one-time fee. How would an NDA work - isn't that just for to stop them, well, disclosing anything,

 

Simply have both parties agree to a contract which details who owns all rights on completion of the project. Should only take a sentence or two.

 

Ok thanks!