LEGAL
Legal talk Copyright on designs:
With Elmhirst Parker Solicitors How can you protect your online creative business?
The internet has provided a unique selling platform for craftspeople, artists and makers.
Whether it’s personalised jewellery, one-off paintings or quirky ‘upscaled’ items with a unique twist, sites like Etsy have provided an online ‘gallery’ for people to reach a worldwide audience. However, while this has huge benefits for those who want to get a business up and running, it does have one major drawback – copyright violation.
It may seem harmless, but just like pirating movies, music or books, stealing a creative person’s work is just that – theft. With so much international attention on creative sales platforms, it’s inevitable that you’re going to get the occasional sneaky thief who hijacks your art and claims it for their own. Sometimes, those thieves are big companies rather than just individuals.
But what redress do you have when that happens?
Intellectual property Any item you put up for sale on a site like
Etsy, whether it’s a vintage dress or an original watercolour, is regarded as ‘tangible property’. Other information, such as your photographs and descriptions, fall under the category of intellectual property.
Copyright law protects original work, including pictorial and graphic designs. It can even cover unique jewellery designs as well as artworks. However, it doesn’t cover what is regarded as ‘common’ design, which is concepts and designs that are widely used.
Trademarks Trademarks identify a brand through the use of a distinctive logo or the way a brand name is written, including the font and colour of the text. It does not prevent other people from using that font but would protect you if someone created a brand identity that was almost indistinguishable from your own. Trademarks help customers identify a brand and reassures them that the quality of the goods is of a certain standard. You can register your trademark but the process can take up to four months to complete and there are limits as to what you can and cannot trademark.
Design rights
Custom-made jewellery is a boom industry online, especially with specially devoted craft marketplaces like Etsy making it easy to sell your creations.
If you do make jewellery, you can apply for design rights to protect the actual design (not the construction). These fall into two categories: unregistered design rights and registered designs. A design is the appearance of a product, including the shape, texture, colour, the materials you use, and more obscure aspects such as the contours and ornamentation. As the creator, you own the design rights, unless a piece was commissioned in which case the design rights belong to the person who commissioned the piece.
Design rights exist independently of copyright and are granted automatically. You can register a design with the UK Copyright Service if you want to prove that a design is yours. Unregistered design rights last for three years in the EU and 10 years in the UK.
A registered design is one that has been registered with the Intellectual Property Office in the UK and provides creatives with a higher level of protection against people copying and reproducing the design for up to 25 years. However, they are not automatically granted and may be subject to investigation by the IP Office.
The difference between
‘inspiration’ and stealing Often, creatives who have had their work copied by others have been told that their original piece ‘inspired’ the person copying it and that they should take it as a compliment rather than feel
threatened by it.
Whether it’s a blatant rip-off of an original design or if certain elements have been ‘incorporated’ into a design that looks very similar, it can be very difficult to prove that someone has actively stolen your design. All you can do in this instance is take comparison photos of your original work and the ‘copy’ and submit them to the site’s administrators for judgement. If you can prove that your piece was registered on a site well before the copy popped up, then there’s a good chance the administrators will find in your favour and take the copy down.
Is it a lost cause? For small artisans, having a big company or manufacturer come along and effectively steal their idea can be incredibly disheartening. There’s also very little you can do to stop them hijacking your design and then mass-producing poor-quality copies by the tens of thousands for a fraction of the price of an original. However, if your brand is blatantly being stolen then you do need to talk to a solicitor specialising in copyright and intellectual property. Be aware that it is incredibly expensive to pursue legal action and if the perpetrator is on the other side of the world then you could find it almost impossible to stop them, regardless of whether or not they’re flouting copyright laws in your country. Be prepared for a long and expensive battle and make sure you get the right legal advice from the outset.
*This is not legal advice; it is intended to provide information of general interest about current legal issues.
Claims & Disputes Personal injury claims • Litigation and disputes
Individuals Family and matrimonial • Probate and estates • Wills • Lifetime planning Property Commercial litigation • Residential property • Landlord and tenant Business Licensing, contracts and leases • Employment
Speak to one of our experts on 01226 282238
17/19 Regent Street, Barnsley, S70 2HP (also in Royston, Selby and Sherburn-in-Elmet)
www.elmhirstparker.com
aroundtownmagazine.co.uk 53
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84
