Be original
Originality is a fundamental requirement if your work is to attract either copyright or design right protection. In order to be original in the sense required for legal protection, all you need to do is create a new work, not copied from any other work.
Be different
No doubt every designer aspires to be different. Being different gets you noticed, makes you stand out from the crowd. But being different may also significantly enhance your intellectual assets.
Designs for items of industrial application (anything other than an artistic work) can qualify for copyright protection but the protection is limited. The designer of these items can use copyright protection to prevent someone else copying his design drawing by producing another drawing but he can’t use copyright protection to stop someone making an article which incorporates the design. In order to stop someone doing that he needs design rights.
Design Rights
Design rights will allow the designer to prevent someone making an article to his design by directly copying the design. But there’s a catch. A design will only qualify for design right protection if it is not commonplace. Being different is essential for design right protection. You can be different in a variety of ways. Let’s say you design tea cups.
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You might design a plain teacup like this one. It’s a perfectly attractive teacup but it’s unlikely to win any prizes for being different either in its shape or surface design or texture. This teacup is unlikely to qualify for design right protection.
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Then you might design something different like this. The shape of this teacup is not commonplace (not in Scotland at any rate). It might qualify for design right protection. The saucer is different as well and might also qualify for protection.
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What about this teacup? It’s different but it’s only different in its surface decoration. Design right protection won’t protect differences in surface decoration, only differences in shape and configuration. However it still pays to be different even if only in surface decoration. It’s just that you’ll need registered design right protection to protect these aspects of your work. |
Get registered design right protection
To get registered design right protection you do need to register your design with the UK Patent Office. One advantage of having a registered design right is that it not only allows you to prevent direct copying of your design by someone else, but it allows you to stop anyone from producing articles which incorporate your design whether they have copied it directly or not. It gives you a monopoly right in your design and it protects both surface decoration and shape and configuration, provided they are innovative. You can find out whether you can apply for registered design right protection at http://www.patent.gov.uk/design/d-applying/d-should.htm.
What about patent protection?
Your design might qualify for patent protection if it is new, embodies an inventive step and is capable of industrial application. Patents protect inventions. They apply to products but not works of art or literary works. They protect technical or functional aspects of the design and not its aesthetics. A patent gives you a monopoly right in the inventive aspect of your design. There are lots of granted patents for teacups! In each case the protection relates to some inventive aspect-a sealing cover, a teacup capable of storing tea, a fungus-proof antibiotic teacup.
If you’ve got what it takes to design something different, make sure you know how to protect the results of your talent and investment. The Patent Office website at www.patent.gov.uk has lots of advice on how to protect your intellectual property rights.
Contact
Paul Motion
(Article created in November 2006 and may not have been updated at time of reading).