Quick answer: To protect the IP of your courses, keep your training hosted on your own platform, sell access rather than ownership, and have clear terms and conditions (written by a lawyer) that say what people can and can’t do with your content. When a client asks for a copy, or asks to put your training in their own LMS, SharePoint or course portal, you don’t have to say yes straight away. Present them with options instead, such as seats in your portal, a formal licence, or an annual access agreement.

Updated November 2026.

This is not legal advice. I’m a business and AI educator, not a lawyer. Only a lawyer can write your terms and conditions for you and tell you what is legal in your own country and industry. My job is to share the questions course creators, trainers and educators ask me most, and to share my own experience and my own position.

TL;DR

• Your intellectual property (IP) is the most valuable asset in your education business. Protect the IP of your courses, who can access them and how they are distributed.
• A client buying seats or access to your training does not automatically give them ownership of your IP.
• If your training goes into their LMS, SharePoint or portal, you lose control over who accesses it, whether it stays up to date and how it gets paid for.
• When a corporate client asks for a copy, think twice before saying yes. Present a few options instead.
• Licencing can be one of those options, in a formal legal form or a more informal annual access agreement.
• This now happens in B2C too, with individual customers asking to download your content or move it into another course portal.
• Whatever you decide, talk to your lawyer and get clear terms and conditions in place.

Protect the IP of your courses

Your educational IP is your courses, workshops, programs, frameworks, slides, workbooks, videos, templates and the way you teach. It’s what makes your business valuable, and it’s what your clients and students are paying to learn from.

So it deserves protecting. Not just from the obvious things like copying and piracy, but from the everyday, very polite requests that slowly take control of it away from you. “Can we have a copy?” “Can we put it in our system?” “Can I take it with me?”

This is not a new topic for me at all. I talked about this back on 15 August 2021 in 14 Ways To Protect The Intellectual Property of Your Online Course. I talked about it back on 31 March 2021 on my podcast in How To Protect Your Intellectual Property with Andrea Smith. And I talked about it again back on 24 January 2025 in Protect Your IP at All Costs: It’s Your Most Valuable Asset, where I said never to hand over your IP just because you have delivered a great training.

I still stand by every word of that. In this post I’m expanding on it, because the question has grown. It’s now about protecting your IP, protecting access to your courses, and protecting how your training is distributed.

A very common question (and it’s not about anyone in particular)

A few days ago I asked my Facebook community what their position would be in this situation:

I want to be really clear that this post is not about any particular individual person. It’s one of the most common questions educators, trainers, course creators and coaches have come to me with for years. I share these common questions and answers on my blogs, in my YouTube videos and across my socials, and I have done for years.

I’m writing about it again simply because more and more people are asking it, and more and more people are being asked it by their own customers. The comments on the post showed a resounding agreement that your IP, and control over it, should stay with you.

When a corporate client asks to host your training in their own system

This comes up most in B2B and corporate education and training. If you provide educational workshops, consulting or training to businesses and organisations, it’s usually one of the very first questions they ask:

“Can your intellectual property be hosted inside our own portal, our own platform, our own LMS (learning management system), or our own SharePoint, so our whole team can access it?”

They often ask it early and make it a priority, so it can feel as if hiring you as their trainer, facilitator or consultant depends on you saying yes.

There is no right or wrong answer here. But my personal opinion is this: think twice before you immediately agree. There are a number of different options you can present to a corporate organisation, and “yes, here are all my files” doesn’t have to be one of them.

Buying access is not buying ownership

For a start, your intellectual property is yours.

A client buying seats or access to your training for their staff members does not automatically grant them ownership of your intellectual property. They have paid for their people to learn from it. They have not bought the IP itself.

That’s why I recommend always hosting your training on your own platform. It’s how you keep control of your IP.

What you lose when your IP goes into their system

If your training goes onto their platform and inside their systems:

• You can’t manage who is accessing it. It’s no longer your login, your student list or your access rules.
• You can’t keep it updated. The version you handed over is the version that lives on, even after you have improved it.
• You lose the opportunity to charge per head. It immediately opens up to their whole workforce, or whoever they have given access to that SharePoint or LMS.
• You lose control over distribution. Files get downloaded, forwarded, copied into other systems and shared beyond the people who were meant to have them.
• You lose control over how it’s managed and paid for. Once they have it, the way your IP is updated, managed and paid for is out of your hands.

None of that means the client has bad intentions. Most organisations simply want everything in one place. But it’s your job to protect your business, and their convenience shouldn’t cost you your most valuable asset.

What to do when clients ask for a copy of your IP

Whether it’s a request for your slides, your workshop recordings, your workbooks or your whole course, here’s how I approach it.

1. Don’t answer on the spot

You don’t have to say yes or no in the first meeting. “Let me send you the access options” is a perfectly professional answer.

2. Offer access in your own portal

Give their team seats or logins in your own course portal. You can charge per person, per group or per year, you can see who is using it, and everyone always gets the latest version.

3. Consider a licence, if it suits you

Licencing can be one of the options you present. When people ask me about licencing, I explain it as a two-pronged approach:

1. A legal form of licencing. A formal licence agreement, drawn up by your lawyer, that sets out exactly what the organisation can do with your IP, for how long and for how much.
2. A more informal form of licencing. You agree via a contract that they have access to your training, can use it and distribute it internally (or whatever terms you set), but they have to pay you annually to keep that access.

With either option, things like certification can still come through your business. For instance, staff complete the training, and the certificate is issued by you.

I said back on 24 January 2025 in Protect Your IP at All Costs that licencing isn’t always the best option, because once someone has your IP, it’s hard to control how they use it. That’s still true, which is why the terms matter so much, and why a lawyer needs to write them.

4. Invite them to book you again

If they want your expertise again later, they can hire you again. Your next workshop, refresher or updated program is a service, not a file they keep forever.

This question comes up a lot in my Legends Lab and in my one-on-one calls, and having a clear set of options ready makes the conversation so much easier.

It’s happening in B2C now too

Over the last couple of years, I’ve seen this question move into the B2C market as well. Educators, trainers, course creators and coaches are being asked by customers (individual members of the public) whether they will allow their content to be downloaded onto the customer’s own device, or whether the customer can transfer it into another course portal, including their own.

This came up for me a few weeks ago. It was a request for my own IP to be transferred into a competitor’s course portal. In my terms and conditions, that’s a no.

I’m not saying everyone should say no to this. But these are my terms: people can’t transfer or use my IP in any other location, and it certainly can’t be transferred into a competitor’s portal.

That’s because I want control over my IP and who accesses it. And because I update my training a lot, I want my customers to always have the most up-to-date version, which can only happen in my own portal.

“But I don’t want another login”

Some people feel strongly about not wanting to log in to multiple platforms, and I completely understand that. We all have too many passwords.

But one login being more convenient isn’t a reason to give away control of someone else’s IP. The answer is to make your own portal really easy to use, with a simple login, a mobile app and great support, rather than handing your training over.

How to protect access and distribution of your courses

1. Host your training on your own platform, on your own domain, so you control access.
2. Get clear terms and conditions written by a lawyer, covering downloads, sharing, transfers to other platforms and what happens to access when someone leaves.
3. Sell access, not ownership. Be clear in your sales pages and contracts that people are buying access to learn.
4. Have your options ready for corporate clients: seats in your portal, a formal licence or an annual access agreement.
5. Keep certification through your business, so completion is always verified by you.
6. Keep your training updated in one place, so every student always has the latest version.
7. Put your name and face on your content. I covered this, along with watermarking and keeping an eye out for copies, back on 15 August 2021 in 14 Ways To Protect The Intellectual Property of Your Online Course.

Use a proper course portal

To do any of this, you need a proper course portal like Tekmatix. I run my own courses and memberships on Tekmatix.

With Tekmatix you can:

• Create unlimited courses for unlimited numbers of students
• Run unlimited memberships and communities
• Give your students a free mobile app to access your training and education from your own portal
• Host it all entirely on your own domain
• Control your IP, control who accesses it, and control who is paying for it

And most importantly, it lets you provide the right support to the people who are in your training and in your care. You can find out more at Tekmatix.

Boundaries protect your business

Having boundaries in your business is absolutely critical to its survival and its sustainability, and to the protection of your intellectual property.

Boundaries are also what let you service your clients properly. They make sure everyone learns from only the most up-to-date training, and that only the people who have purchased can access it.

Whether you work B2B or B2C, talk to your lawyer and get clear terms and conditions in place around what you allow and what you don’t. Then you can answer the “Can we have a copy?” question calmly, confidently and the same way every time.

Frequently asked questions

How do I protect the IP of my online courses?

Host your courses on your own platform, sell access rather than ownership, and have a lawyer write clear terms and conditions about downloads, sharing and transfers. Put your name and face on your content and keep certification through your business.

Should I let a corporate client put my training in their LMS or SharePoint?

There is no right or wrong answer, but think twice before agreeing straight away. Once it is in their system you can’t manage access, keep it updated or charge per head. Present options instead, such as seats in your own portal, a formal licence or an annual access agreement.

Does buying seats in my course give a client ownership of my IP?

Buying seats or access for staff does not automatically grant ownership of your intellectual property. Your contract and terms and conditions should make that clear, so ask your lawyer to check them.

Should I licence my course to a company?

It can be one option. A licence can be a formal legal agreement or a more informal contract where the company pays annually for internal access. Either way, a lawyer should write the terms.

What if a customer asks to download my course or move it to another platform?

That is up to your terms and conditions. In my own terms, my IP can’t be transferred or used in any other location, especially a competitor’s portal, so customers always get the latest version in my portal.

Sarah x

This article is general education, not legal advice. Only a lawyer can write your terms and conditions and tell you what is legal in your country and industry.

Sarah Cordiner is a business and AI educator. She has more than 20 years in business, has taught more than 280,000 students in 181 countries, and has been sharing business education online since around 2011.