Currently many cultural heritage institutions (CHIs) choose not to digitise their copyright works and make them accessible online because the resources required to carry out manual searches for rights holders (so that they have an evidence base) are too onerous. Some might take a more risk managed approach – but the risks can perturb many of them from taking this approach. The net result is that millions of cultural assets remain warehoused and valuable cultural assets unsurfaced to the public. UK Government has estimated that there are approximately 91 million orphan works across CHIs.
‘Diligent searches’ are those which need to be performed to a standard where a rights holder will be identified if reasonably possible. The UK Government’s Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) describes what it regards as acceptable, listing resources the applicant to its Orphan Works Licensing Scheme (OWLS) should have considered searching for each type of work. No two searches are identical, and the UKIPO will assess whether the applicant’s search is satisfactory before awarding a licence. The resources used to trace rights holders include ones where clear positive matched are possible, such as collecting societies and rights holder representatives, the use of reverse image searches, commercial image suppliers and more general information sources such as news archives and Google searches.
The process involves a researcher manually undertaking each search, logging into individual provider accounts or searching their archives, or sifting through internet search results.
The OWH Search platform uses AI to manage a set of tools (agents) to deliver the orphan works diligent search assessment. These tasks include interrogating the work to extract metadata (dates, locations, names etc) which will be used in subsequent assessments, evaluating whether a work is in copyright, image matching, interrogating partner resources via APIs etc and locating any potential rights holders. We are adding tasks and agents as we expand the range of media we can work in (from images and text, eventually to sound and moving images for example) and to increase the sophistication of searches.
Yes. We estimate that OWH Search can cost 90% less than a conventional, manual diligent search so the cost of search is justifiable in far more instances. In addition to reducing rights-related uncertainty, OWH can help institutions unlock the value of collections that are difficult to use today. By improving discoverability and supporting more efficient rights assessment, the platform can help enable publication, licensing, research access, public engagement, and education. For many organisations, that means OWH is not only a risk-management tool but also an enabling service that helps previously underused material become more accessible and useful.
OWH Search currently supports digital images, submitted in batches, alongside any associated information you can share (for example, the title of work, name of the creator, any cataloguing notes or other contextual details). The platform can also interrogate each work to extract metadata (such as dates, locations and names) which is then used in later assessment steps. Over time, we intend to expand the range of media we can work with to include text to and, in time, sound and video (time‑based media).
We work with each customer to agree the best way for us to receive content. Once we receive the data, we handle the OWH Search process and return reports to our customer.
Yes. OWH can work alongside existing collections management systems and other collection workflows. During onboarding, we agree how your metadata and outputs will map to your current environment, and over time we expect to support broader system connectivity through APIs. The aim is to fit into established institutional processes rather than require you to adapt them.
OWH is designed to support institutional decision-making with transparent, reviewable evidence based on its review of all digitally-accessible information, but the reliability of any diligent search is limited by the availability of evidence. Outputs are presented with supporting details so teams can see what was found, how conclusions were reached, and where uncertainty remains. Confidence levels and risk indicators help users prioritise review, while maintaining an auditable record of the search and assessment process. In practice, this means OWH helps make diligent search and rights assessment more consistent, scalable and reliable as well as far more economical.
We treat security, confidentiality, and ownership very seriously. During onboarding, we agree how content will be stored, who can access it, what controls apply, and how auditability will be maintained. We can support tighter controls where needed, including restricted access patterns and detailed logging. Your materials remain your materials, and the platform is intended to process them for the agreed service purpose only. Specific security and governance arrangements are confirmed as part of the customer onboarding process.
It is helpful if you can provide widely used image formats such as JPEG, TIFF, and PNG, and avoid proprietary formats where possible.
You’ll get best results if you provide whatever you already hold that helps identify the work and its possible rightsholder(s). Helpful fields often include:
- Title/object name and any creator/attribution
- Known/estimated date and place
- Accession/reference ID and collection name
- Any existing rights status notes (including uncertainty)
- Any prior “diligent search” notes or outcomes (where available)
- We also ask you to say how you intend to use the work and whether there have been any communications with possible rights holders
OWH Search can also extract certain metadata directly from the work (dates, locations, names, etc.) to support the overall assessment and subsequent search steps.
Results are typically provided in a summary report with structured data outputs in a spreadsheet or a JSON file aligned to SPECTRUM where appropriate. We can also provide more detailed reports including more detail of findings and rationale and enhanced image metadata where relevant. We can also discuss how outputs should be formatted to fit your internal workflows, and we expect to expand delivery options over time, including API-based return of results into collections management systems.
Turnaround depends on the size and complexity of the collection, the quality of the metadata provided, and any onboarding or security requirements that need to be completed first. We usually confirm an indicative timeline during scoping so you have a clear expectation before work begins. For smaller or well-structured batches, results can often be delivered more quickly, while larger or more complex collections may be phased.
Pricing depends on the scope of work, including the volume of material, the level of metadata available, the complexity of the collection, and any integration or security requirements. We usually discuss this during early scoping so we can propose the most appropriate service model for your organisation and use case. OWH aims to reduce the cost compared with manual diligent search by at least 90%.
Yes. OWH Search is designed to support your internal decision-making, not replace it. The service provides structured findings, supporting evidence, and indicators of confidence or uncertainty so your team can review the results in line with your organisation’s policies, risk tolerance, and approval processes. This helps make decisions more consistent and more efficient, while ensuring institutional oversight is retained.
Our searches will be better than any human-based search currently available but despite the range of information resources OWH Search can access, there will be cases where we report that no copyright holder can be found yet one emerges later to assert their rights. We reduce this risk by offering an additional ‘OWH Maintain’ service for customers to commission annual searches. and we offer the ‘OWH Manage’ service to manage rights assertions and facilitate licence payments when legitimate claims are made. Clients understand that licence fees will sometimes have to be paid and our ‘OWH Connect’ service will be an add-on service that can be purchased for clients to be connected to rights holders.
It usually suits customers to consider the full range of OWH services at the outset, when we can agree a service package across a portfolio of works. It is possible to access OWH Manage and OWH Connect services as particular needs arise, perhaps because a claim has been received, but pricing will depend on the circumstances and we will generally conduct an OWH Search to establish a baseline for those services We usually confirm the right combination of services during onboarding and scoping so the service matches your priorities and existing processes.
OWH does not use your images or any of your data to train AI. We don’t retrain it with anything you upload. All we do is give it a bit of extra context when needed (for example, copyright duration rules), but your data never becomes part of the model. We use Azure-hosted LLMs, so your prompts and outputs are isolated to our Azure environment and are not shared with other customers or made available to model providers to train or improve their models.
Security-wise, OWH is hosted on Microsoft Azure, so we benefit from enterprise-grade controls: encryption in transit and at rest, tenant isolation, role-based access controls, monitoring and logging, and a strong compliance posture. We have also deployed in a UK Azure region ensuring that any data processing complies with UK GDPR.
Agentic AI means an LLM-powered application that has agency. The LLM is given an objective (“Is this an orphan work?”) and uses its ‘intelligence’ to determine which tools and agents it needs to use in which order to meet the objective. The tools and agents are code snippets, APIs, databases, text and other LLMs that the ‘orchestrator’ LLM has access to. As it carries out the analysis it reflects on how well it is working and adjusts the process accordingly. In the OWH application, we use the latest and largest available models (currently from OpenAI) to maximise the ‘reasoning’ capabilities and ensure it has carried out the necessary diligent search.
The models are deployed on OWH’s Microsoft Azure environment on a serverless basis so there is no data leakage outside of the OWH environment and, importantly, outside of the UK.
No. Customer content is used only to run your search and generate your report.
We only retain customer content for as long as needed to deliver the service and meet agreed operational requirements (for example, report delivery, quality assurance, and any contracted support/maintenance). Retention periods can be agreed contractually, and deletion can be requested in line with those terms.
