Can Your Agency Reuse Your Content in Its Own Portfolio After You Leave

You left the agency months ago. Now you find your old campaign work on their portfolio page, or in a pitch deck a prospect forwarded you out of curiosity, and you are not sure whether you are looking at a breach or something you never thought to ask about.

Owning a piece of content and controlling where it gets shown in public are two separate legal questions, and a contract can answer one while never touching the other. Most agency agreements are careful about who owns the finished deliverable, and less careful about who gets to display it.

The question your contract probably never asked

Ownership of a file and permission to display it publicly are not the same right. A contract can assign you full ownership of every graphic, video, and caption your agency produced, and still say nothing about whether the agency can keep showing that work to its next prospect. One clause settles who holds the copyright. A separate, often absent clause settles who gets to display it.

This is the moment that triggers the question for most readers: finding your own brand’s content on your former agency’s site months after the relationship ended, or inside a pitch deck a friend forwarded you. The instinct is to assume this is theft. It usually is not.

Where this shows up

• The agency’s own portfolio page, sitting indefinitely unless someone asks for removal.
• A pitch deck for a new prospect, where old work appears as a proof point.
• A case study post on the agency’s blog or social accounts, written long after the contract ended.
• An awards submission, where the agency enters your account without asking first.

A portfolio page is indefinite and public. A pitch deck is narrower, seen inside one sales conversation. A clause broad enough for one does not automatically cover the others.

Why the gap exists in most contracts

The omission is rarely deliberate. Most agency contracts include an intellectual property assignment or work for hire clause settling who owns the deliverables, since both sides know to negotiate that part. Display and portfolio use tend to get folded into a generic marks clause written for a different purpose, or left out entirely.

Silence is not neutral. A license granted at kickoff, even implicitly, with no stated time limit, is commonly read as continuing indefinitely, which is why an agency showing old work after you leave is not automatically a breach.

What counts as a breach and what does not

The answer depends on which of three situations your contract falls into. No display clause at all means the agency likely has an implied license with no stated limit, and can probably still show the work. An explicit grant with no end date means the agency is within its rights, however uncomfortable that feels. The one actual breach is a time limited or revocable grant where the agency is still displaying past that point.

Discomfort is not the same as breach. Recourse depends on which of these three categories the contract falls into, not on how the display makes you feel.

The clause that actually closes this

A workable clause needs four elements: what the agency may show (finished deliverables, or process and strategy documents too), where (portfolio, pitch decks, awards submissions, and social accounts, named separately since each carries different risk), how long (a stated term after the contract ends), and a revocation mechanism (written notice, with a removal window such as thirty or sixty days).

A clause that just says the agency “may reference client relationships in its marketing materials” is the vague version. One that names finished deliverables, names the portfolio and pitch decks, states a period after termination, and promises removal within a defined window, is the specific version.

Even without a contractual revocation right, a direct request for removal is a reasonable ask. Agencies that value reputation over one portfolio piece generally comply.

What to do if you are already past this point

• Reread the signed contract before assuming there is no clause. This is often buried outside the intellectual property section.
• If no clause exists, send a direct written request to remove the display, framed as a relationship matter rather than a legal demand.
• Check whether the display includes confidential performance data, not just the creative work. That is often a stronger claim under a confidentiality clause, worth checking either way.

Building this into the next contract

Raise display and portfolio rights during negotiation, not after the relationship ends. It costs nothing to specify while both sides are aligned, alongside who owns the deliverable itself.

See who owns your social accounts when an agency runs them, what to check in a social media agency contract, and how to read an agency scope of work before you sign it if the relationship is new enough to specify this now.

Ready to find an agency that puts this in writing? Browse vetted agencies, or if you run one, list your agency free.

FAQ

If I own the content outright, why can the agency still show it?

Ownership of the deliverable and a license to display it are separate grants. Many contracts clearly assign ownership to the client while also granting the agency, explicitly or by implication, a broad display or marketing use right alongside it. Owning the file does not automatically revoke a license to show it.

Is there a standard time limit on how long an agency can show my work?

There is no industry standard duration. The limit is whatever the specific contract states, and most contracts state nothing, which functions as no limit in practice.

Can I ask an agency to take my brand out of their portfolio even without a contract clause?

Yes. Without a clause granting you that right, this is a request rather than an enforceable demand. Most agencies still comply, since a public dispute over one portfolio piece is a poor trade against the reputation the portfolio exists to build.

Does this apply to case studies with performance numbers, not just creative screenshots?

Not quite the same question. Creative display is governed by whatever portfolio or marketing use clause exists. Performance numbers are a separate matter, more often covered by a confidentiality clause, stricter and more consistently present in agency contracts than a display license is.

Sources

• Who Owns Your Social Accounts When an Agency Runs Them, partnerinsocial.com, fetched 2026-09-09.
• What to Check in a Social Media Agency Contract, partnerinsocial.com, fetched 2026-09-09.
• How to Read an Agency Scope of Work Before You Sign It, partnerinsocial.com, fetched 2026-09-09.