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Blog guest: "How do I protect my designs?"

Submitted by Team 12designer on 23.11.09, 16:50

We all want to establish a difference with our competitors and to reach our target group; our weapon, a professional, individually created design. This creative effort has its value! It is obviously not nice being copied, plagiarized or misused, no matter if knowing about it or not. In fact, it's annoying, and in many cases it also hurts the wallet. Reason enough to deal with the issue, and the right time to present three possible solutions. Today we free our blog space for Peter Schilling, from designprotection.com, who will guide you thru this issue.

 

A) Design Protection via Copyright

Many designers claim Copyrights. In practice, however, it is often forgotten that copyright law requires a minimal standard of originality. Not every design is actually protected by copyright. Different countries impose different standards, although general requirements are low. In the United Kingdom there has to be some “skill, labour and judgment” that has gone into it; in Germany it must be recognized as a "personal and intellectual creation".

If design is protected by Copyright, this protection applies automatically from the moment of creation. Registrations are not required but it is advisable, to keep a precise documentation of the creation date and the work itself. Since the letter mailed to yourself, known as “poor man's copyright”, can be easily manipulated, we suggest a trustfuller way: a notarial deposit. Notaries are legal experts, publicly authorized and internationally accepted. You can order a notarial deposit online at http://www.priormart.com/en Your design remains unpublished when you deposit it at a notary, which is good e.g. in pitches.

 

B) Design protection via Design Patent / Community Design

If a design is not protected under national Copyright laws, it can still get protection as a Community Design (Europe) or Design Patent (US). Community designs do not require originality but design must be novel and with an individual character. You can register a Community Design at the Office for Harmonization (OHIM).

There is also a free version of a Community Design (UCD). Once you disclose the design in a way that specialized circles within the Community could gain knowledge of the design, it will be protected for 3 years against copying in every country of the European Community. But as the OHIM states on its website, “in practice, the holder of a UCD may encounter serious problems proving the date of disclosure and therefore that protection exists.“

The designer receives a document of disclosure including all relevant details to proof the date and content of disclosure. Additionally, disclosed designs are locked and can not be altered (BTW, the latter is something valid too at 12designer.com).

The service is free. Find out more on http://en.designprotection.com.

 

C) Design protection by Trademark registration

There is a third way by registering a trademark. This protection right is valid only for selected product categories and, compared to Copyright and UCD, rather expensive. Usually not the designer but the customer/company will register a trademark. Copyright and UCD are commonly taken into account by the designer and, if possible, transferred to the client.

One more point before finish.

There is no 100% protection in this world. Think of bicycles. No lock grants 100%, they just differ in how hard it is to crack them. But still, almost every bike around is locked. Nobody wants to be the first getting his bike stolen. Now think of designs. You can protect it for free with an UCD and the risk to have your design stolen will shrink. If you ignore design protection, this issue will hit you unprepared. So it's better to be the active part and get the best out of design protection now.

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