Copyright

This week we were shown about copyright and how many designers are effected by people breaching it. The Intellectual Copyright Law is there to protect us designers from having work either stolen or passed off as someone else's. Some people do not understand that if you have an idea, this cannot be protected and you have no copyright for the idea, whereas if you actually create the idea and make it into something physical, whether it be something you can touch or something created digitally. If someone wants to use your work then you are allowed to either sell them the rights to use your work, or the ownership of the work. It is good to know that you are able to buy and sell Intellectual property. Just remember that copyright is an automatic right which you do not have to undergo any processes in applying for it. However you can apply to have your work further protected through registering it online. You can register your work to be protected through the gov.uk website.

It is only possible to take legal action up against somebody if your work has been further protected, which there will be a fee to do so. There is 5 different types of Intellectual Property Protection:

• Patents

Inventions and products, eg machines and machine parts, tools, medicines

• Trade Marks

Product names, Logos, Jingles

• Design Right (Automatic)

Shapes of objects

• Copyright  (Automatic)

Literary works (including writing), art, photography, films, TV, music, web content, sound recordings

• Registered Designs

Appearance of a product including, shape, packaging, patterns, colours, decoration

You would think that copyright of something lasts forever, even after your death. But this is untrue, as the copyright over your designs lasts a further 70 years, to which it is then able to be used by anyone for whatever they want, they can pass the work of as being their own. One way to get around this would be to sell the Intellectual Property Rights to someone else, then only they can say that it is their property. I would rather do that than have a stranger saying something they have copied or stolen of mine is their own.

I am going to look at a case where an artists work has passed the 70 year time frame after their death and people have began to copy the works for their own benefits. This case study is between an artist called John Tenniel and the company called Whittard's. John Tenniel was an illustrator who created illustrations of Alice In Wonderland. Below you can see the exact depiction of his illustrations whihc have been used in the creation of a tea set. There is nothing that anybody can do about it, other than watch Whittard's sell the tea set and make money from John Tenniel's design.

Figure 2, John Tenniel Illustration

Figure 3, Whittard Tea Collection

Above you can see how they have just stolen the exact illustrations and placed the design onto something.

If more information is required to do with copyright, look up the copyright sections of the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988.


References:
[1]https://www.gov.uk/intellectual-property-an-overview/protect-your-intellectual-property
[2]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/69/Alice_par_John_Tenniel_25.png/629px-Alice_par_John_Tenniel_25.png
[3]http://www.whittard.co.uk/tea/type/black-tea/english-breakfast-tea/alice-in-wonderland-drink-me-tea-selection.htm