Copyright

[Nick W]

Does anyone know the situation on copyright of designs when applied to furniture et al.?

Is there an automatic copyright on the design of a piece, is sticking a copyright notice on it somewhere enough, or do you need to register the design somewhere, and if so where?

 

[tim]

There is a huge amount of information out there, a lot of it conflicting. I have often wondered about the legitimacy of copyright, designright etc. The problem is not stating that you have asserted your right but in defending that right. For example if you draw a design for a potential customer and then they give that to someone else to copy, how do you know unless you get access to their property again? Its not that different to patent law in many ways - the winner (lawyers aside) is generally the party with the deepest pockets. I put design and copyright labels on my drawings etc but know that it is unlilkely that I would be able to defend (or even know to defend infringements) but it does cost nothing to do so no harm done.

If you have a unique design I do believe you can register it but I know not where although these guys may be useful (or not) http://www.acid.uk.com/. You could of course patent it but to do so you need to prove that it is genuinely different to anything out there and its expensive to do esp if you want to cover a wider set of categories. Then you must also be prepared to defend it (otherwise it is a waste of cash).

I keep meaning to look up the Mark Willkinson case that ran a couple of years ago about design infringement. Actually I just have but can't find any specific details. Although the search did turn up this which may be very useful:

http://www.hogarthchambers.com/hoga...es/IP, Media and Entertainment/MH_IP_2005.pdf

Cheers

Tim

 

[Nick W]

Thanks Tim.

 

[colinc]

You will find a lot of useful information here. If you wish to register copyright the us copyright office is a good place to go.

I haven't researched how it applies to furniture but drawings can be registered. Be interested to know what you find

http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html#wwp

regards

Colin

 

[engineer one]

not sure if this helps, but worth knowing, if you get someone to take photos of your work, unless you specify, and maybe even pay for it,
the copyright lies with the photographer. you need to get a release from him/ them.

in the same way, if someone designs a web site for you, you may have to pay extra to retain the copyright to the site yourself.

as for copyright, what you are doing by adding the mark is suggesting that you have imparted a specific "extra" to the item.

experience suggests that you can spend some money down at the local county court to sue someone who has copied directly your item, but frankly the biggest problem is about the life of copyright.

i also design models, and we work from original works drawings, and occassionally we buy those from one or other museum. some seem to think they have copyright, others don't. in my opinion unless the providers of the item are direct descendants of the originator they would have a difficult job proving infringement of copyright.

last thought, years ago, an american company selling chewing tobacco sponsored some racing cars. once models were made, they went round to the retailers and threatened them with the law. some gave in. others said how can you enforce a copyright on an item which is already copyrighted.

i.e. if the car was a porsche which is a copyright design, how can the advertising be copyrighted too. the other point is why would you advertise, and then want to stop people buying your advertising paraphanelia????
murricans i guess.

anyway the normal advice is put the copyright logo on, and the date and your name, then wait and see what happens. if nothing else you may get some extra advertising.

paul

 

[ikd]

Another way to copyright is to post the design/photo to yourself and not open it when it arrives. The post mark serves as proof of copyright if it ever goes to court.? However, this might not apply is you need to post a piece of furniture :shock:

 

[tim]

The fact is that you still need to be prepared to defend any form of copyright.

Say you design a piece and photograph it, date it, copyright it etc. A large manufacturer decides to make a piece that appears identical. You challenge them - they pull in their £500/ hour lawyers given that they have now set up a production line and agreed a customer supply route. By this point they will have probably spent upwards of several hundred grand in tooling setup, sales briefings, advertising plans etc. How many thousands are they going to be prepared to risk to defend that position and how many thousands are you prepared to spend knowing that if you lose, you may well (likely) pick up their costs too. Not fair but thats the way it is.

Cheers


Tim