Copyright, Licenses & Usage Rights

Content of this Website

The texts, design, and structure of baduno.com are copyrighted and owned by Baduno GmbH. The imagery is an AI-generated proprietary production and subject to our house rights regarding its compilation; any reproduction of texts, design elements, or image series requires our prior consent. For press coverage about Baduno, we are happy to release material – please contact us via the press page.

Third-Party Licenses Used

The fonts Fraunces and Vazirmatn are licensed under the SIL Open Font License and are served from our servers. The Earth textures of the interactive globe are based on freely usable NASA imagery (Blue Marble/Visible Earth); NASA material is generally not copyright-restricted, and attribution is hereby given. The open-source components we use (e.g., Three.js, MIT license) are used in compliance with their licenses.

Rights to Work Results for Clients

Upon full payment, customers receive the contractually agreed, typically exclusive, unrestricted in time and territory, usage rights to the work results created for them for the agreed purposes. Terminology databases, translations, and texts then belong to the customer; our internal tools, pipelines, and reusable base components remain with us.

AI-Generated Content and Protectability

Purely machine-generated content does not generally enjoy its own copyright protection under German law; protection arises through human creative effort in selection, editing, and composition. We design processes so that this human imprint is documented and transfer to customers the rights that we ourselves hold – we do not promise fictitious exclusive rights to public domain material.

Third-Party Rights, Complaints, Customer Content

Customers assure us that provided content is free of third-party rights; we for our part check our image production for recognizable trademarks and real persons. If you believe that content on this website infringes your rights, write to [email protected] – we will review each notice promptly and document it.

Step-by-step practical example

Suppose a client commissions us to create a multilingual terminology database for their company. After project launch, we jointly define the terms and translations. During processing, drafts are created and submitted to the client for review – at this point, usage rights remain with us. After successful acceptance and full payment, the created content (the final terminology database, translations, and associated texts) receives the contractually agreed usage rights. Typically, these are exclusive, unlimited in time and territory rights for the agreed purpose, enabling the client to independently use, modify, and distribute the content. Our internal tools, pipelines, and reusable base components – such as our linguistic analysis tools – remain our property and are not transferred. We ensure this by clearly separating client content from our internal resources in our contracts. Thus, the client receives exactly what was created for their project, without us disclosing functionalities we use for other clients.

Common misunderstandings

In dealing with copyright and licenses, we repeatedly encounter certain assumptions that do not hold true in practice. A common misconception is that customers automatically receive all rights to all intermediate products as soon as a project begins. In fact, the rights to drafts, unfinished translations, or preliminary terminology lists remain with us until full payment is made. Only upon contractually agreed acceptance and payment do the usage rights to the final work product transfer to the customer.

Another misunderstanding concerns AI-generated content. Some customers assume that purely machine-generated texts or images are automatically protected by copyright and can be freely licensed. As described on this page, protection only arises through human creative effort. We document this effort in selection, editing, and composition, so that the transfer of rights is legally secure. However, we do not promise exclusive rights to content that is already in the public domain—for example, freely usable NASA images that we use as a basis.

The use of open-source components also occasionally leads to uncertainties. Fonts under the SIL Open Font License or MIT-licensed libraries such as Three.js may be used and redistributed by us, but without changing the license terms. Customers therefore do not receive exclusive rights to these components themselves, but only to the individually created results based on them.

Interplay with Our Other Policies

The copyright regulations described here are closely linked to our other policies. For example, the privacy policy and the rights to work products complement each other: Customers assure that the content provided is free of third-party rights—this also includes personal data, which we process in accordance with data protection requirements. Conversely, we treat all customer data confidentially and use it only for the agreed purposes, without claiming independent usage rights to the content.

Our General Terms and Conditions (GTC) specify the transfer of rights and establish contractual frameworks, such as payment terms or disclaimers. The practice described on this page—exclusive, unlimited in time and space usage rights after full payment—is standardly enshrined there. For special requests such as a time limit or spatial restriction, we deviate individually, which is then documented in the contract.

Furthermore, we refer to the applicable legal sources in our imprint information. The mention of the SIL Open Font License or the NASA image sources is transparent, so that customers and third parties can understand which licenses underlie our tools. This interplay creates clarity for all involved and avoids contradictions between the various legal documents.

What This Means for Clients in Practice

For our clients, the copyright principles described above result in specific practices in everyday project work. Upon acceptance and full payment, they receive the contractually agreed usage rights to the work results created for them – such as terminology databases, translations, or localized websites. These rights are generally exclusive in nature, meaning we do not use or pass on the results elsewhere. The client may independently use, edit, reproduce, and make the content available to third parties, insofar as the agreed purpose covers this.

It is important to understand: Our internal tools, pipelines, and reusable basic components are not transferred. The linguistic analysis tools, templates, or scripts that we use across projects remain our property. The client receives exactly what was individually created for their project, without functionalities that we hold for other clients. This separation is clearly defined contractually and communicated during collaboration.

Furthermore, clients benefit from our transparent licensing policy for third-party materials: The fonts and image sources we use are either royalty-free or already covered. Clients therefore do not need to fear additional license fees for these basics, as long as the use remains within the agreed scope. Should questions about specific rights arise, we are always available to clarify.

Our Internal Process

Before starting a project, we document the copyright framework in our project file. We record which content comes from the client, which we create anew, and which is based on licensed third-party providers. During processing, we internally mark interim results with rights notices – for example, whether a draft is still subject to our house rights or is already intended for release to the client. This marking helps us ensure the correct transfer of rights at each handover. After payment is completed, we issue the client a written confirmation of the rights transfer, specifying the acquired usage rights in detail. In parallel, we archive our internal tools and templates separately from the client results, ensuring no commingling occurs. Our system also logs which AI-generated components have undergone a creative contribution through human selection and editing – this documentation serves as evidence should questions about protectability arise later. In the event of third-party complaints, we maintain an internal checklist that enables a swift review and, if necessary, adjustment of the content. This structured process ensures that we preserve both our clients' rights and our own intellectual property rights in a traceable manner at all times.

Terms Explained Clearly

In the context of this page, you will encounter some technical terms that we briefly explain here. By exclusive usage rights, we mean the right to use, reproduce, distribute, and edit the created content yourself – in such a way that no other party (including us) may do so without your consent. Temporally unlimited means that these rights do not expire after a certain period but remain in effect permanently. Geographically unrestricted means that use is permitted in all countries of the world. The agreed purpose is defined in the contract; it may include internal use, publication on a website, or integration into software. To be distinguished from usage rights are our internal tools: these are reusable components such as translation memories, terminology pipelines, or analysis scripts that we use for many clients. These remain our property and are not transferred. AI-generated content is output created without human creative input – under German copyright law, it is not protected as a work. Protection can only arise through human selection, editing, and compilation. This distinction is important for understanding which rights we hold and can transfer in relation to which components.

What this means in practice for clients

For our clients, the principles described above have clear practical implications. When you commission a terminology database, translations, or texts from us, you receive the exclusive usage rights to those deliverables upon full payment. You may then use the content internally, share it with third parties, or publish it on your website without further consultation with us. What you do not receive are our internal processes, software tools, or reusable base components – these are used for other clients as well and therefore cannot be transferred exclusively to you. If you later wish to make changes to the delivered content, you may do so independently; modified versions then fall under your rights. Should you wish to use the content for a purpose other than the agreed one, this is generally possible as long as no third-party rights are affected – however, we recommend coordinating with us briefly in advance. For AI-generated content, we note that we document the human imprint to substantiate the protectability. You receive the rights that we ourselves hold in the results; we do not promise exclusive rights to public domain components. In summary: you receive exactly the rights to the work created specifically for you that you need for your business, while we keep our infrastructure operational for other projects.

Documentation of human creative contribution for AI-generated content

In practice, we secure the copyright protectability of AI-supported work results through comprehensive documentation of human involvement. For each project, we record which creative contributions are made by our editors and graphic designers – such as the selection and arrangement of AI suggestions, the creative revision of texts, or the composition of image elements. This documentation is carried out alongside the project in our internal systems: we log when a human editor initiates an AI generation, which parameters they selected, and how they post-processed the results. This way, in the event of a dispute, we can demonstrate that sufficient human imprint exists, which is required under German law for copyright protection. This practice ensures that the rights we grant our customers are legally sound. At the same time, we make it transparent that purely mechanical preliminary stages without human refinement are not protectable – a point we expressly clarify in our contracts. The documentation also serves internal quality assurance: it enables us to trace our employees' creative contributions and continuously improve them. For customers, this means they can rely on work results whose protectability is not merely asserted but demonstrable – a key difference from blanket assurances we do not provide.

Contractual Separation of Customer Content and Internal Resources

The clear separation between what a customer acquires and what remains our property is a central component of our contracts. In practice, this means: as soon as a project starts, we define together with the customer the exact scope of the content to be created – be it terminology databases, translations, or graphics. At the same time, we list in our contracts the internal tools, pipelines, and reusable basic components that are not subject to transfer. A typical example: for a multilingual website, we create texts and an associated terminology. The texts and terminology are transferred to the customer upon payment. Our translation memory system, the underlying algorithms, and the templates for the website structure remain with us. This separation is explained in a separate clause in the contract terms, and we explain it to the customer verbally before signing. This way, we avoid misunderstandings: the customer receives exactly what was created for their project without us disclosing our company-owned resources that can also be used for other customers. This approach is standard in the industry and creates legal certainty for both parties.

Review of Customer Content for Third-Party Rights

Before we begin the actual work, we regularly ask our customers to assure us that the content they provide – such as logos, images, or text components – is free from third-party rights. This assurance is contractually documented. In addition, we conduct a visual inspection of our own image productions: We ensure that AI-generated images do not contain recognizable trademarks, protected designs, or depictions of real persons. Should we nevertheless receive a notification of a potential rights infringement, for example via an email to [email protected], we immediately initiate a documented review process. This includes identifying the contested content, legal assessment by our compliance department, and, if necessary, the immediate removal of the material. We document each step to demonstrate that we have fulfilled our duty of care. For clients, this process means that we not only rely on their assurance but also independently minimize risks. At the same time, it is important to understand that we cannot conduct a comprehensive legal review of every individual client content – the client's assurance serves as the basis for this. Collaboration in this area requires a mutual trust relationship, which we foster through clear agreements and transparency.