Craft Focus - Page number 87 - October/November 2021 (Issue 87)

87 ACID To find out more, visit www.acid.uk.com part of the work. A qualitative approach is taken rather than a quantitative approach. The question to ask is whether what has been copied, does this go to the heart of the work? Or is it an important part of the work, even if it is just a small part? What is UK unregistered design right? Design right is an automatic right that protects purely functional products. To be protected by design right, a design must meet several conditions. A design must comprise the shape or configuration of the whole or a part of the article. It must be original, and it must be recorded in a design document, or an article made to the design. Design right protection does not protect the surface decoration on a design in the UK, although a new Supplementary Unregistered Design, launched in January 2021 to replace unregistered Community design, will protect the contours, shape, colour, lines, texture, and ornamentation and lasts for three years. How long do design rights last? Design right last for a much shorter period than that of copyright. A design right lasts for either 15 years from when the design was first recorded in a design document or an article was made to the design, or 10 years from when an article made to the design is first made available for sale. Whichever is the shortest period of protection is the right that will subsist in the design. Much like copyright, the owner of a design right has the exclusive right to reproduce the design for commercial purposes by making articles to the design or enabling third parties to create the design. Who owns a design right? Like copyright, the owner of a design right is generally the designer who first creates a design. However, this may not always be the case dependent on whether a design is created during employment, where the employer will be the owner of design right in the design. How do I know if I have infringed a copyright and/or design right? Copying or adapting someone else’s work for commercial purposes. Providing the means for a person to copy someone else’s work for commercial purposes. Creating a new work which substantially resembles another work for commercial purposes. Assembling motifs from your own archive material in such a way that the result merely adapts the original work of another designer for commercial purposes. Adapting a work from one medium to another (fabrics to carpets or carpets to posters for example.) Colour is not copyrightable but could reinforce a claim of infringement if the colourways are placed too closely to resemble the original. Remember it is the whole or substantial part of the work that is copied. Design right infringement Making articles to a design that are made exactly or substantially to a previous design. Making a design document for the purposes of enabling articles to be made that are made exactly or substantially to the design. Tips and advice about best practice: The following guidelines should be used when dealing with a design. • Don’t wilfully copy any other company’s designs for commercial purposes without obtaining consent or a license to do so. • Don’t use source material, which is clearly from a design, the copyright of which is owned by a third party, without obtaining consent or a license to do so. • Above all, don’t pressure employees, clients, agents, and design houses to copy material, which is owned by other designers or companies. • Try not to succumb to pressure from agents, employers, designers, or clients to copy or develop designs, from others, which are owned by third parties. • If you intend to use the design of another person or company, contact the owners of the design to seek permission to use the design prior to using it. • At all times, efforts should be made to identify the author of the design, design drawings and samples, which a client brings to your company which the client wants to use. A client may not understand and/or be indifferent to claims of copyright and/or design right infringement. If the owner of a design is unknown, you are still liable for any infringement of rights that subsist in the design. • It’s important that designers and other third parties become aware of the rights that can subsist in a product, be it a new gismo, gift idea or card design or another item and what these rights give to the designer. Many creators within the giftware sector provide the zeitgeist for new design thinking and differentiate their offering through the quality and innovation of design. For this to continue the value of a designer’s creation needs to be fully respected. For further information, please contact Anti-Copying in Design on +44 (0)845 644 3617 . It should be remembered this is only a very brief outline and further advice should be sought on any specific queries.