Wishing all our readers and followers a Happy New Year, Akua Designs London is back with a bang. Here at head office we’ve mixed things up were bringing you fresh new articles related to the development of the brand.
Today we look at Intellectual Property, as a designer it’s very important to protect your design, product or identity, furthermore its important to know which type of protection you need. This falls under the category of Intellectual property. Commonly known as ‘IP’ is the invention of something unique, or of a new product. This can be a brand, logo or written work for a website.
In basic terms IP falls under these three categories:
Artistic work= Copyright
Invention= Patent
Recognisable/easily identified= Trademark
Physical Shape/appearance= Design Right
Dyson hoover, a patented product designed by James Dyson, who is best known for dual cyclone bagless vacum cleaner.
Copyright
Automatic copyright protection is applied, when something original is created.
Copyright symbol is applied with holders name, and year the work was created.
Patent
A registered creation, which stops anyone making, using or selling it without permission.
It must be a new invention and not an obvious modification which already exists.
Trademark
Trademark is something that makes your brand recognisable, for example an identifiable logo.
It last for 10 years, and is only valid in the country of registration.
Design Right
Automatically protects the physical style of an object, which is original in design.
Design right does not cover any two-dimensional elements of a design e.g. Pattern or product surface.
Eames DSW chair protected by Design right officially sold by Vitra.
Ngouchi coffee table recognisable product officially sold by Herman Miller.
For more information visit www.ipo.gov.uk
