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If you are an artist or in the creative industry, it is important to understand how specific types of intellectual property (IP) can benefit you. Design rights and copyright are both important types of IP rights that can protect your business and offer you greater legal rights. This article will discuss the benefits of design rights and copyright for creative businesses in the UK and how they may benefit your brand.
What Are Design Rights and Copyright?
Design rights are a type of intellectual property that protects the designs of your products and ensures your business holds complete exclusivity over their usage. Design rights protect the visual appearance of a product rather than any functional aspect. They can exist as unregistered designs and registered designs. Still, it is strongly advised to register your design rights to gain greater legal rights over preventing a competitor from copying your designs without your consent.
In contrast, copyright is an automatic right automatically exists when you create an artistic work, like a song, book or photograph.
Advantages of Design Rights for Businesses
If you are an artist, design rights may be a highly beneficial type of intellectual property to own. They help you guarantee exclusivity, meaning your business will be the only one able to use your design. It also enables you to take action against competitors who attempt to sell your product designs without consent. Therefore, design rights provide you with legal protection around your products and enable you to market your business as the sole provider of the registered design.
Registered design rights also provide a huge financial advantage. Design rights are intangible assets that you can license to other organisations. This means you can allow other businesses to use your registered design in exchange for a fee. There are benefits to this, as it will enable you to:
- gain additional income from your intellectual property;
- expand your geographical reach;
- expand your consumer reach;
- grow your brand.
Licensing can be attractive, particularly when it is difficult to distribute your products in other countries. You should consider drafting a licence agreement with a qualified intellectual property lawyer.
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Advantages of Copyright
Any business in the can also benefit from copyright. Copyright will apply to any original works concerning your products, including:
- drawings;
- digital artwork;
- recordings related to your product;
- video content relating to your product; and
- audiovisual work.
This is only a small list of the different types of work that benefit from automatic copyright protection.
Copyright is beneficial because it protects the work as your own and gives you legal rights to prevent others from replicating it. Copyright protection gives you legal rights to stop others from using your work without permission. If you find another business is using your copyrighted work without consent, you should contact an intellectual property specialist for advice on your rights and options.
In the same way as design rights, you can license your copyright and choose how others can use your work. This can provide you with additional income and also allow you to maintain control over your work while still maintaining ownership.
LegalVision’s Trade Mark Essentials Guide provides valuable information for any business looking to register or enforce a trade mark.
Key Takeaways
Design rights and copyright are two types of intellectual property that can benefit creative businesses. Design rights protect the visual appearance of a product, and copyright protects the exclusivity of a piece of creative work. While there are different types of IP rights, they do overlap in terms of protecting and equipping businesses with rights to challenge others if their IP rights are infringed.
For more information about design rights or copyright, our experienced intellectual property lawyers can assist as part of our LegalVision membership. For a low monthly fee, you will have unlimited access to lawyers to answer your questions and draft and review your documents. Call us today on 0808 196 8584 or visit our membership page.
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