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Who owns the code and the intellectual property?

Short answer

You own the code, the repository and the accounts. We hand over source, build configuration and deployment credentials, and set up store and cloud accounts in your organisation's name from the start rather than ours. The only exception is third-party open-source dependencies, which keep their own licences.

What transfers

Source code, build configuration, infrastructure definitions and documentation. Where we set up App Store Connect, Google Play or cloud accounts, we create them under your organisation rather than ours, so there is nothing to migrate later and no dependency on us existing.

Why this is worth asking about

A common pattern in the industry is for the agency to hold the store account, the domain, or the hosting. It is rarely framed as leverage, but that is its effect: leaving becomes a technical project rather than a decision.

Ask any prospective developer where the Apple Developer account will live and whose name is on the cloud billing. The answers tell you what leaving would cost.

The exception

Open-source dependencies stay under their own licences — we do not transfer ownership of React Native to you, only of the code we wrote. We keep dependency licensing to permissive terms unless there is a specific reason not to, and we will flag it if a dependency carries obligations you should know about.

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