Protecting your design work through law

Protecting your Design Work through law

A report for designer-makers identifying legal methods and their suitabilities to the small design business

Prepared for: MA Design Management, Managing Design Module DES7004

Prepared by: Laura Katr i ina Pol lard, S11732343, MA Design Management, Birmingham Inst i tute of Art and Design, Birmingham City University

Submission Date: 23rd February 2012

Contents

Section Title Page

A. List of figures and tables

1. Introduction 3

2. Intellectual Property Rights – key facts and a brief history 4

3. How IPR is valuable to design (and your business) 10

4. What’s the relevance and what’s the use of IPR? 12

5. Recommended strategies: a product based analysis 16

6. Conclusions 19

7. References and Bibliography 20

8. Appendix A 22

Protecting your design work through law – a report for designer-makers

Laura Katriina Pollard – Managing Design Module - MA Design Management 2

List of Figures and Table

Title Page

1. Photograph, Kishu vase, Maya Selway, (2011) 5

2. Visual Map of IPR, illus. based on Branagan (2011) and

Practical Law Company (2011), Pollard, L. 6

3. Photograph, Tatty Devine and Claire’s Accessories Necklaces,

Tatty Devine Blog, (2012) 14

4. Photograph, 3 Moiré Vessels by Victor ia Delany Design

by Matthew Booth, (2011). 16

Table

1. IP Analysis of Moiré Vessel by Victoria Delany Design 17

Cover image: Pollard., L Photograph of Moiré Vases and Ceramic Vase, 2011.



1. Introduction

This report concerns itself with setting out fundamentals of intellectual property rights and their

suitabilities to a particular area of the design industry; the small designer-maker business. For the

purposes of this document the Design Council’s definition of this type of design-led business is

used to represent the industry sector.

Operating on the edges of commercial design practice are many crafts-based designer-

makers. Bridging the gap between purely artistic endeavours and commercially briefed

work, designer-makers design and manufacture limited edition, one-off or bespoke

products for retail.

Design Council Website (2012)

The report presents considerations and recommendations for such businesses and their owners.

This document makes reference to the legal systems of the United Kingdom and relevant

European Union law relevant to arguments presented, and as such is aimed at designers and

design businesses based or founded in the UK. For designers’ businesses functioning outside of

the UK, the legal systems of the businesses home country will differ and should be regarded as

first reference in such cases.

Disclaimer: It should be noted that none of the commentary contained forthwith amounts to legal

advice. It is advisable, according to Branagan (2011: 142), that as well as learning about the

legal and regulatory requirement governing your particular area or sector of industry, you should

also take advise from a lawyer who has a proven track record in your sector.



2. Intellectual Property Rights – key facts, a brief and recent history

To cover the history and complexity of this area of legal subject here would be ambitious, rather a

brief overview of the history and key developments within the sector, including insights into the

current arguments in the sector.

Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) are the legal mechanisms available to businesses and individuals

which can protect an object, product or piece of work both in 2D and 3D, from varying threats

which can undermine the product’s value and perception or the business and people associated

with it.

Intellectual Property (IP), according to the Practical Law Company, market intelligence analysts

for lawyers (2012) is a series of legal rights attached to certain types of information and ideas and

to their particular forms of expression. It goes on to say that “businesses need to be aware of

different IP rights to ensure that they protect what they create, maximize their competitive

position and avoid infringing the IP rights of other people and businesses.”

Branagan in The Essential Guide to Business for Artists and Designers (2011: 143), calls IPR

“A series of rights, both moral and financial, that govern artists, designers, inventors

and businesses/brand-name rights.”

Fundamental to a designer’s practice and business should be the actions taken to ensure work

produced is adequately protected by the laws existing within the UK and EU. These laws aim to

consolidate a products’ position and a businesses position within its market and deter others

from using your work to their gain, financial or reputation.

There are a series of laws which can be used by a design business to protect its work visualized

in a map (Fig., 2) adapted from Branagan (2011) – adapted for the context of this report, setting

out the areas of IPR identified appropriate to designer-makers.



Firstly it’s relevant for a designer-maker to know that these rights protect the appearance (whole

or part of) a product, it’s –

LINE

COLOUR

SHAPE

TEXTURE

MATERIALS (whether of the product or it’s

ornamentation)

Fig 1. A photograph of the Kishu vase by Maya Selway, silversmith. A small batch production vase outline object made from ethnically sourced silver and oxidized copper, 2011.

MA Design Management – Managing Design Module 6

Fig. 2, A visual map of Intellectual Property Rights for Designer-Makers, based on Branagan (2011: 148,149,151) and Practical Law Company (2011)

Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)

Rights

Moral Rights

Author is rights holder unless an employee

License or assign to others for fee

Financial Rights

License or assign to another for a fee

Financial Rights (royalties)

Patent

Can be expensive

Once published information becomes public

Must be innovative, novel, have industrial application

Lasts upto 20 years

Must be registered

TrademarkProtect your brand and business name

Renew every 10 years if registered

EU Community Protection available

A sign or symbol distinguishing a product or service from other traders

Shape of product or packaging, Colours associated with the trading style, sounds smells and slogans

Must be capable of graphic representation, distinctive, distinguishable goods/services, not excluded by law

A brand name, a house mark a logo

An unregistered mark TM

Design Rights

Registering your work protects you in the design marketplace

Community Design Right (EU countries)

Registered Right protects for 25 years

Then renewals every 5 years

Unregistered EU Right protects for upto 3 years only

Relatively low cost

Unregistered UK Right lasts for 10 years

Copyright

Automatic - unregistered

Designed works limit 25 yearsFile designs with an IP Solicitor

Register then Renewals every 5 years

Protects original artistic, musical, dramatic and literary works including sound, films, broadcasts

MA Design Management – Managing Design Module 7

To explain the types of rights and laws shown in Fig 2., it’s useful to understand there are

categories of IPR to which they apply. The Practical Law Company (2011) explains Unregistered

Rights are automatic, protecting against copying or using a product. They include copyright,

unregistered design rights, unregistered trademarks and confidential information. Registered

Rights are granted on application to an official body such as the UK Intellectual Property Office.

They give monopoly rights, meaning that owners can stop others from using the right without

permission. These include patents trademarks and registered designs.

Criteria for these applications exist, for instance a registration for Design Right is valid when the

design work is new and has individual character. A design is not new if published in the world,

except where you couldn’t reasonably know this had happened in the EEA (European Economic

Area). (Marks and Clark, 2011).

There is a grace period of 12 months for the designer to disclose this if it’s occurred, however it

should only be used as a last resort and not relied upon, according to the lawyers Brackenbury,

A., (et al) of Olswang. (2011)

Analysing this further, the characterisation Individual Character, is defined by Marks and Clark

(2011) as “a design which produces a different overall impression on the informed user from any

prior design available to the public.”

In other words, the product is not a ‘variation on a theme’. Apparently, where the work originates

from a field of similar activity or technical constraints which limit design freedom, small design

differences prove individual character.

This could be useful for designer-makers, where objects, functions and technologies can be very

similar from one business to the next.

Another point useful is the law of confidence, which exists according to Bessant and Bruce

(2002: 204), to prevent ideas, preliminary design and prototypes and other such confidential

information being used by third-parties during a product’s development and launch on the

market, or at least, to offer some “legal redress”. They say it is important to impose an

“obligation of confidence” for instance when issuing development work to potential



manufacturers or retailers. i.e. a designer should remind the potential manufacturer that she is

issuing work in confidence, and it shouldn’t be distributed to others, along with other constraints.

UK Registered Designs Act 1949 definitions of Design and Product, as quoted in Cornish and

Llewelyn (2003: 542) give a context to this report:

Design is defined as:

“The appearance of the whole of part of a product, resulting from the features of,

in particular, the lines, contour shape texture or materials of the product of its

ornamentation.”

Product is:

“Any industrial or handicraft item other than getup [e.g. bottle shape] graphic

symbols, typographic typefaces and parts intended to be assembled info a

complex product.”

A very brief history and the current context of IP

The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988 replaced the Design Copyright Act of 1968, and

set out these different Registered and Unregistered Rights for Design. Interestingly, they also

constrained an intrusion of artistic copyright into industrial design, according to Cornish and

Llewelyn (2003:540) by limiting 3D object copyright to a 25-year term.

Explaining the reasoning for limitations of time on design elements, Cornish and Llewelyn argue

that IP in Industrial Design occupies a midway point between patents and copyright, at one pole

with trademarks at the other. They say, “trademarks need to continue for as long as a business

continues to use them”. (Cornish and Llewelyn, 2003: 535)

They define industrial design, as where designed elements are incorporated into mass-produced

products that aim to enhance their attractiveness by their appearance.

They consider also that design is used as a distinguishing factor, which is often not easily



separated in minds of purchasers and users from trade marks and similar symbols – and

because most consumers use trade marks as a reference point for securing qualities of

goods/services which they’ve come to expect or enjoy, the borderline between design a

trademark rights is fuzzy.

Cornish and Llewelyn (2003: 543) consider the fact that handicraft is also included in the

Community Registered Design definition, an indicator that the European Commission’s

determination to embrace variation in production/design processes; as they regard handicrafts to

be the “antithesis of the machine-made”, unrestricted by industrial process.

The designer-makers products are offered the same opportunities to protect their work alongside

that of the mass-produced volume product, using the same strengths, values and protection

offered to such industrial products by law.

The Hargreaves Review of IP in May 2011 stressed that IP law must adapt to change, and that

the UK’s IP system was falling behind industry’s needs, especially in the area of copyright. (The

Practical Law Company, 2011).

It is this area of copyright which has led to discussion in the design industry press of late where

the perceived inequalities in copyright law between design and artistic works have been

highlighted.

The editor-in-chief of Elle Decoration UK Michelle Oghundehin wrote in 2011 about what she calls

“UK endorsed intellectual property theft”, where copyright eligibility appears to classify 3D design

as unworthy of the full protection afforded to works of literature, drama and music (et al), which

are protected for 70 years after the death of the originating author/s.

Oghundehin says this amounts to cheap products, facsimiles of design classics, which are

inferior. The ‘worlds highest selling luxury modern interiors magazine’ has taken the step to

prompt debate by currently running a campaign – Equal Rights for Design, gathering names for a

petition to lobby the UK government to change design copyright laws. (Elle Decoration, 2012)

On the counter side of this argument is a business-led proposition of a free-market approach to



growth. Less restriction on design work replication and licenses of designed works as a result of

shorter copyright terms, it could be argued as Cornish and Llewelyn (2003: 542) appear to, drive

competition to deliver efficient, value-for-investment products which pushes manufacturers and

design businesses to produce these designed objects to a larger market. Price points are more

varied and volumes of unit sales increase. Cornish and Llewelyn (2003: 542) argue that after the

25 year term ends it essentially opens up a product to copying by competitors, resulting in

“convergence” issues, where commercially successful products have built up as trade marks in

the interim, and perhaps be under ‘full-term’ copyright where registered in other member states

of the EU.

3. How IPR is valuable to design (and your business)

There is value in protecting your assets as a designer-maker; Hart (2006:214) advises that by

using IPR you can protect yourself from:

Copying, mimicking or using your design work to gain profit

Preventing ‘passing off’ – when your work is used under someone else’s name

Others using your brand and stripping value from your business

To explain how this happens, we can look at areas of a small design business individually and

identify IPR’s value in each area.

Ownership

IPR affects designers and their businesses in a few different ways, and one such area is that of

ownership. Asserting your ‘paternity rights’ – your right to have your name associated with your

work when published, used or communicated in public, is a legal mechanism that can be

important. This is the right to be acknowledged as ‘author’ of the work. (Branagan, 2011:143)

For instance, when a building is completed an Architect will often assert this right so when written

about or photographed in media, their name must be used in description of such building.



There are requirements naturally to securing this right. Hart writes (2006: 214) that the person

must be entitled to use the right, and this must be asserted when copyright is assigned. The

right to have your name associated with the work should be explicitly set out when assigning the

copyright.

Commissions

When working to commissions, the ownership differs between laws of the UK and EU. In a

Community Registered Design Right, the designer is the owner. A designer should be aware that

if the commissioner wants to apply to protect the work through a Community Registered Design

Right, an assignment needs to be obtained from the designer. (Marks and Clerk, 2011) i.e.

Through agreement ownership moves to the commissioner. It’s important to resolve ownership

issues before applications are made as retrospective changes and discussions on the matter can

be costly both in terms time and cost of a project.

Documentation

It’s worth remembering that when having design work photographed, under the 1988 Copyright,

Designs and Patents Act, the author of the copyright work is the owner (the photographer), as

opposed to the commissioner, (you the designer). This is an area of ‘moral rights’ in IPR which

Hart (2006:216) writes that can’t be assigned, but are attached to the work, which only the

author can waive or assert. Agreeing usage terms before commencement can help resolve how

you will see your work used, and avoid confusion or difficult situations when you wish to use the

photography, and when and how the photographer does too.

Employment

When a designer is an employee, and during the course of normal work for the employer they

produce a piece of design, normally, the employer is the owner of such work. (Marks and Clerk,

2011). If a designer produces work beyond the scope of the employees contract, it can be

argued that any such work is then under the designer’s ownership.



Websites

Domain names, according to Stokes (2001:168-169) whilst not being classified as a species of

IP, are treated as if they were and thus conflicts can arise between them and trademarks. Stokes

writes about ‘cyber-squatters’ who register a similar or identical domain name in an artists or

organisations name to then barter over its return by seeking money. In the UK this can amount

to trademark infringement or ‘passing off’.

In the case of designer-makers, should someone else own the domain name for your business

name, which is very often the designers given name, whilst not initially problematic in future

should the designer find themselves established and very well known in industry, this could be a

potential cause of conflict and ultimately litigation.

It’s advisable to register/purchase your domain name as soon as possible when setting up in

business as a designer-maker, perhaps even before you produce you first piece of work.

4. What’s the relevance?

Think about your business as a designer-maker - What are the things that make it what it is?

The products; the customers; the shops and retailers; the media – there are many outlets and

potential opportunities for your IPR to be exploited here.

Contracts and Clients

The Design Council advises designers to decide upon their position on IP and set out in contract

through terms and conditions their attitude to design rights and the value of ideas. (Design

Council Website, 2012)

This can start from simple statements setting out a copyright assignment – asserting ownership,

any reproductions, and references to design work. If a client is likely to be selling your work as a

retailer or promoting it as part of their business activities, it’s important to be in control of how



your name and brand are used.

When working freelance for a design agency or consultancy, consider your contract. When

delivering fixed-fee work products, the Design Council (2012) advises it is typical that IP will

assigned to the commissioner; you’ll be required to waive your copyright to the work. Here risks

or liabilities for the product, in say, manufacture will rest with the commissioner. When selling

any product the seller is affected by what McRobb (1995: 3) calls a ‘duty of care’ resulting from

the Consumer Protection Act 1987.

The Council says it’s about negotiating a mutually acceptable agreement and contract. It may be

possible to share the risk through licensing or royalties, an agreement will need to be drawn up

(usually with the help of an IP lawyer) which sets out how the designer will be recompensed for

sales. Whilst this is usually a slower and lower income stream from product sales, it can provide

long-term income from a product.

If you are entering into an agreement with a new client and are unsure of the consultancy’s

integrity, protecting work through a Registered Design Right may be a consideration.

Risk Management

Minimizing the risks involved by anything you produce as a designer is important. Implementing

levels of control in design development, function, safety and action planning will reduce the risk of

litigation if you start producing products in volume scales. Given McRobb (1995: 57) argues

product manufacturers should implement standard practices an procedures to minimize this risk,

through checking parts suitability, maintaining records and carrying our safety analyses, it’s also

sensible for a designer-maker to adopt these practices. As well as reducing exposure to

potential litigation these practices could also have an impact on professional practice.

Managing Threats – what happens when somebody copies your work

The difficulty small design businesses face in using the law to protect their work is highlighted

however by a recent example from the jewellery design company Tatty Devine.

In February 2012, Tatty Devine, an independent UK fashion jewellery business established in

1999, wrote on their blog about what they claim are copies of their Perspex jewellery accessories



being on sale in branches of Claire’s Accessories, a mass-market UK high street chain-retailer.

Their blog shows pictures of Tatty Devine’s jewellery products next to very similar looking

versions sold by Claire’s Accessories. (Tatty Devine Blog, 2012).

Fig 3 Images taken from Tatty Devine’s weblog, on the left, Tatty Devine’s Dinosaur Necklace RRP £132, on the right, Claire’s Accessories Dinosaur necklace RRP £4

Inspired by a visit to the Natural History Museum, Tatty Devine’s Dinosaur necklace is made of

about 50 Perspex bones, individually laser-cut and drilled – a labour intensive process according

to Rosie Wolfenden, a co-owner of the brand, quoted in The Guardian’s Fashion Blog, (2012).

Wolfenden also went on to say, "What's the impetus for small brands to start up if people can

just take away their ideas?"

Tatty Devine say they copyright all their products, and register their UK designed and made

products with the Intellectual Property Office, (the UK’s IPR registration organisation) allowing

them to take action against any infringers of the rights (which Tatty Devine it appears is now

doing – Telegraph, 2012). The Guardian Fashion Blog (2012) states “[for] the for smaller labels



and independent designers, the costs involved could make a lawsuit against a huge international

retail giant impossible.”

This seems to echo sentiments in the legal industry; law firm Olswang’s (2011) report Intellectual

property rights in the fashion industry reports that SME (Small Medium Enterprise) designers’

products were routinely copied by major high-street retailers. This is exacerbated by design

rights only being challengeable through civil sanctions (penalties), which is in contrast to copyright

law which provides for criminal proceedings enforceable by police and trading standards officers.

There appears to be a hurdle for the small design business to overcome here, the cost of

implementing rights protection versus the potential loss of earnings through larger corporations

copying design work.



5. Recommended strategies: a product based analysis

To help understand how a designer-maker can use IPR –a product analysis with recommended

strategies, with respective advantages and disadvantages was carried out on a product from

designer-maker Victoria Delany of Victoria Delany Design – her Moiré vessel.

To provide some background on the designer, Delany is a graduate in Goldsmithing

Silversmithing, Jewellery and Metalwork, and practicing designer with a consultancy working to

private and commercial commissions and batch-produced products (Victoria Delany Website,

2012).

Fig. 4, A photograph by Matthew Booth, of 3 Moiré Vessels by Victoria Delany.



Delany’s Moiré Vessels, which are hand-folded folded and riveted vessels made from steel and

powder coated in coloured enamel paints. Featured in an article in The Sunday Times, (2nd

October 2011: 28-29), they were described as an imaginative, witty re-creation of traditional craft.

IP Analysis of Moiré Vessel by Victoria Delany Design

Feature Possible IPR Strategy Advantage Disadvantage

The product -

Shape and

Colour,

texture

Unregistered Design

Right

Automatic,

qualification as 3D

object

No cost to

register

EU protection only

lasts 3 years

Often difficult to

enforce/prove

infringement

(as above) Registered Design

Right

Through a

solicitor and

application

Protection of 25

years, a solid

deterrent

Costs can be

expensive, legal

advice required.

Renewal costs every

5 years

Initial

development

work

(drawings,

plans, notes)

Copyright –

unregistered/

registered

Automatic

unregistered

Registered – Filed

with solicitor

Marked with ©

A deterrent to

copiers

Brand strength

and

professionalism

Difficult to prove

date of conception if

not filed correctly.

Documentation

- Contractual

terms and

conditions

Various Ensure ownership

and copyright is

assigned

accordingly.

Confirms design

ownership and IP

Can be contested if

contracts aren’t

checked by a lawyer

Product Name

and Brand

Name

Registered

Trademark of Moiré

Vessels and Victoria

Delany Design

Strengthen brand

and product range

should it become

mass-produced

via licensing

Deters others

copying the

name of the

company and the

product

Cost can be

prohibitive unless

income from sales is

high.

Table 1. IP Analysis of Moiré Vessel shows features of the product and relevant associated work, strategy for use and possible advantages and disadvantages of usage.



Note on Patents: patents have been excluded in this case as this did not seem suitable for the

product; none of the technology used to produce the Moiré vessel is new or unique to Delany,

nor can they be seen as an ‘invention’ (Hart, 2006: 9-13), and as such the high cost of applying

for a patent based purely on the design/3D shape wouldn’t justify the protection it offers. Patents

are renewable only for a maximum of 20 years (IPO website, 2012)

To summarise, there are various options available when considering how to protect the Moiré

vessels – but the decision making process isn’t definitive; rather, it would appear variable. Vital to

understanding whether to go through full and financially costly application processes to secure

Registered Design Rights and Registered Trade Marks for instance, is the designer’s assessment

of estimated sales income and life-span of the product. If the product is in demand from retailers

or consumers, and market research and feedback suggests the item will deliver significant profit

for the designer, it may be a worthwhile exercise for the designer, to 1. Protect the item from

being copied and 2. Strengthen the designer’s brand, image and portfolio.

Three steps to IPR protection have been included in an Appendix A (p.22) to the report, setting

out practical recommended strategies that can be undertaken by all small design businesses.



6. Conclusions

Following basic steps to protect a designer-maker’s work will often cost nothing except time.

Where required, speak to a specialist IPR lawyer; seek advice from specific resources like Own-It

and ACID websites, which understand the industry sector you work in.

Accommodating the challenges which digital technology is bringing to design production, the

grey areas between Design Right and Copyright is leading policy-makers to reconsider law in this

sector – the Hargreaves report and the UK Government’s broad endorsement of the review’s

recommendations together with the Intellectual Property Office’s research and consultation with

design businesses (Olswang, 2011), will hopefully lead further improvement proposals aimed

specifically at this vital sector of the creative industries in the UK.

In this report advice has been adapted from more general resources written for artistic and

design-led businesses including general legal industry resources on IPR. The subject matter is

complex and often difficult to interpret into plain English. Hopefully this report goes some way in

offering clearer arguments and commentary on the subject.

Word count 3790



7. References and Bibliography

Branagan, A., (2011) The Essent ia l Guide to Business for Art ists and Designers, London: A & C Black Publishers Ltd. pp. 142, 142, 148, 149, 181. Bessant, J., and Bruce., M (2002), Design in Business, Harlow: Pearson Educational Ltd. pp: 204. Burroughs, K., (2011) Easy Seats, The Sunday Times – Home Section, 2nd October 2011, London: News Group International, Available at <http://www.lexisnexis.com> [Accessed 22nd February 2012] Crowhurst, A. M., (2012), Did Claires Accessories r ip off Tatty Devine? [Weblog], Guardian Newspaper Fashion Blog, London: Guardian Newspapers Ltd., Available at < http://www.guardian.co.uk/fashion/fashion-blog/2012/feb/24/claires-accessories-tatty-devine> [Accessed 26th February 2012]. Cornish, W., and Llewelyn, D., (2003) Fifth Edition, Intel lectual Property: Patents, Copyr ight, Trade Marks and Al l ied Rights, London: Sweet and Maxwell. Pp: 535, 540, 542, 543, 542. Design Counci l (2012) [website] Available at http://www.designcouncil.org.uk/about-design/Design-as-a-profession/Careers-in-design/Designer-maker/ [Accessed 14th February 2012]. Design Counci l , [website] (2012), http://www.designcouncil.org.uk/resources-and-events/Designers/Guides/Legal-issues/ [Accessed 15th February 2012]. El le Decorat ion Magazine – Media Pack, (2012), London: Conde Nast Publications, Available at < http://elledecoration.co.uk/> [Accessed 14th February 2012]. Hart, T., Fazzani, L., and Clark, S., (2006) Fourth Edition, Intel lectual Property Law, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp: 9-13, 216, 214. Marks and Clerk, (2011) A short guide – Designs, London: Marks and Clerk LLP Marks and Clerk, (2011) A short guide – Trademarks, London: Marks and Clerk LLP. McRobb, M., (1995) The Product Liabi l i ty Risk Minimisat ion Book, Bristol: Syndey Jary Limited, pp: 3, 57.

Own It, (2012) [Website], How can I make sure I am credited as the or ig inator of my own work? Updated 18th November 2009, Available at http://www.own-it.org/knowledge/how-can-i-make-sure-i-am-credited-as-the-originator-of-my-own-work [Accessed 22nd February 2012]. Stokes, S., (2001) Art & Copyright, Oxford: Hart Publishing, pp: 168, 169. Tatty Devine [Weblog], (2012), Can you spot the dif ference?, February 22nd 2012, Available at https://www.tattydevine.com/blog/2012/02/can-you-spot-the-difference/ [Accessed 22nd February 2012]. White, B., (2012) Tatty Devine cal l in the lawyers over copycat Claire’s Accessories designs, 24 February 2012, London: The Daily Telegraph, Available at http://fashion.telegraph.co.uk/columns/belinda-white/TMG9103293/Tatty-Devine-call-in-the-lawyers-over-copycat-Claires-Accessories-designs.html [Accessed 26th February 2012].



Bibl iography ACID IP Tracker Service, Ant i Copying in Design, (2012), [Website], Available at <http://acid.eu.com/acid-ip-tracker> [Accessed 22nd February 2012]. Baden-Powell, E., Bleakley, A., and Eneberi, J., (2010), Fourth Edition, Intel lectual Property and Media Law Companion, Haywards Heath: Bloomsbury Professional. Brackenbury, A., et al (2011) Intel lectual property r ights in the fashion industry, London: Olswang LLP. Claire’s Accessories, 2012, [website], Available at http://www.claires.com [Accessed 25th February 2012]. Hargreaves, I., Prof., (2011), A Digita l Opportunity – a review of Intel lectual Property and Growth, London: Intellectual Property Office. Available at < www.ipo.gov.uk/ipreview-finalreport.pdf> [Accessed 25th February 2012]. Maya Selway, 2012, [Website] Available at http://www.mayaselway.com, [Accessed 25th February 2012].

May, C., (2007), Digita l Rights Management - The Problem of Expanding Ownership Rights, Oxford: Chandos Publishing (Oxford) Ltd The Practical Law Company, (2012), Dif ferent types of intel lectual property r ights: a quick guide, London: Practical Law Publishing Ltd. Available at < http://practicallaw.com/0-382-1312> [Accessed 18th February 2012]. Tatty Devine [Website], (2012), Available at http://www.tattydevine.com/ [Accessed 25th February 2012]. Van Tassel, J., (2006) Digita l Rights Management - Protect ing and Monetis ing Content, Oxford: Elsevier Illustrations Selway, M., (2011), Kishu vase, illus.

Tatty Devine and Claire’s Accessor ies Necklaces, llus. Tatty Devine, (2012) Available at http://www.tattydevine.com/ [Accessed 25th February 2012]. Booth, M., (2011) illus. 3 Moiré Vessels by Victor ia Delany Design



Appendix A.

Three steps to IPR protection for a small design business

1. Use automatic r ights as deterrents –

Enforcing challenges and starting litigation if your product is copied can cost more than the total

value/income of sales of a small product for a small designer-maker, so Registered applications and legal

advice may not even be within reach at the beginning of a career at least - the unregistered design right

and copyright, together with law of confidence when used together can create a strong impression of a

designer willing to protect her work, without getting lawyers involved.

However, It’s about weighing up the value of protection versus income potential. If you foresee volume

sales of a high-unit price object then protection via design rights registration may be a good option to keep

brand and design integrity.

2. Terms and Condit ions – set them out, then negotiate.

Contracts – as Own-it website, (2012) suggests, set out some ‘insurance’ policies in your contracts and

terms and conditions before entering into agreements with manufacturers or licensees.

Decide on how valuable the product is to you in relation to the potential income that could be generated

through a % based royalties agreement, and who the IP will belong to.

They also say keep things simple; as litigation is something neither party will wish to start paying for.

3. Record-keeping – keep things organised

Own-it – Intellectual Property website from University of Arts London (2012), suggests you keep original

records of all this work, including notes, diagrams, emails, contracts, drafts, with evidence of their date of

creation.

Confirm this information is yours by marking it correctly -

Copyright © [designer’s name] [date]. All rights reserved



When sending any final drawings, plans or instructions to suppliers, manufacturers, it’s important to protect

the copyright and product’s design. There are various mechanisms available for this, one being sending

the same documents, drawings in registered, signed and sealed package to a bank or solicitor.

Alternatively ACID the Anti Copying in Design organization, which operates an IP Tracker Service which for

a small fee will keep a digital copy of the issue of any documents, IP and confidential information on secure

servers proving you as the originator and sender of the delivery, when issued to a third-party such as a

manufacturer. (ACID website, 2012).

Protecting your design work through law

Documents