Can i take links from my clients sites to mine??

Hi,
I am working with a IT company. My Company's site do not have good genuine back links.
My question is that if i take link from the clients site (of different categories) to our site on the Footer section like this "Designed and mantained by company name"
do Google will take it as spam or not.
Or i can use micro-format to make sure that Google can take me as a designer or developer of the site.

See original post by neha.pandey