Craft Focus - February / March 2021 (Issue 83)

81 ASK THE EXPERTS Ask the experts For most designer makers, a post Brexit era (as from 1 st January, 2021) will mean a loss of automatic intellectual property protection for unregistered designs across EU27. What do I need to do? You should have cause for concern because most designers rely on unregistered design rights. The below should make matters clearer: Unregistered Community Design Rights (UCDRs) - Currently, if you design/make something that’s original, it can be automatically protected for three years by one or a combination of the following – lines, colours, contours, shape, ornamentation, materials, and shape. From 1 st January, 2021 designer makers will lose this automatic protection in EU27. A new, UK Supplementary Unregistered Design Right (SUDR) – will be created mirroring the provisions of the Unregistered Community Design Right (“UCDR”) and last for three years. Existing UCDRs still within their protection period will be imported into UK law and will continue to be protected in the UK by the SUDR and in the EU by the UCDR for the remainder of the three-year protection period. UK and EU Simultaneous disclosure remains an option but might be difficult to carry out in practice. The advice from Government is to seek legal advice. However, ACID believes Government should provide advice and continues to press for clarity. Existing Registered Community Design (RCD) - lasting 25 years) will still be valid for their term and a comparable UK registered design will be created corresponding to an RCD and will be treated as if it had been applied for and registered under UK law at the same time as the original EU registered design. On 1 st January, 2021 , UK designers can still obtain RCD protection in EU27 through the EUIPO. Anyone wishing to register a new design will need to consider making two separate applications, i.e. one to each of the EUIPO and the UKIPO, The UK Intellectual Property Office has provided useful guidance and includes key information for IP creators on how the system will operate after the end of the transition period. ACID provides further information about trade marks, copyright and patents, courtesy of ACID legal affiliate Gavin Lewellyn of Stone King here . Our experts answer your craft and retail dilemmas DAVID GRANT David Grant has been in book publishing all his professional life. He joined Search Press in 2016 as director of sales and marketing. This was his first foray into the world of art and craft – and he loves it! www.searchpress.com I have a small craft shop and I’d love to stock a few craft books but I’m not sure how to best display them and how to persuade people to buy them from me. What are my options? We try to make life as simple as possible for our friends in retail and understand the limitations some smaller shops have in displaying our books. With that in mind we offer a wide range of POS options from single cardboard book holders and countertop racks to full floor-standing spinners. There’s something for everyone, we like to think. A great way to differentiate yourself from the competition is to create kits around our books. Bundle a book with the materials needed – needles, materials, paints or brushes – to make it easy for people to use and learn from the book. That way you’re creating your own product ranges unavailable from any other retailer, high street or online. And talking of online, we can help there too. If you have your own website, we can send you data feeds which means you can feature our books online. How you supply is up to you too as we can offer you a direct dispatch option which makes life incredibly easy. We’ve even got a simple direct dispatch option available for retailers who don’t have an online shop. Any queries please just ask at marketing@searchpress.com – we’d love to hear from you. DIDS MACDONALD Dids Macdonald has over 30 years’ experience in the design sector and co-founded Anti Copying in Design because her products were consistently copied. ACID represents thousands of designers and campaigns for design law reform, including the successful introduction of criminal provisions for the intentional infringement of a registered design in the 2014 IP Act. Dids is passionate about helping SMEs protect their IP via education and awareness to create a proactive IP Strategy. Dids was awarded an OBE for her services to the design industry in 2015. She’s an Honorary Fellow of the British Institute of Interior Design and included in the Design Week Hall of Fame. In July 2016, ACID was named IP Champion by the Alliance for Intellectual Property on British IP Day.