A Crafter's Guide to Intellectual Property part 2

Continuing from the last post, which covered copyright and design.

Patents

A patent protects a new invention – either a product or a process – which has some use. As well as being both new and useful, the product or process must be original to the extent that it must contain an inventive step which is not obvious, even to a person with knowledge and experience in the subject with which the invention deals or is involved.

There is also a range of inventions which cannot be patented, from mathematical or scientific theories, to breeds of animals and anything 'against public policy or morality' – the full list is available here on the IPO's website. 

The application process for a patent can be lengthy, costly and time-consuming. Fees to the IPO range from £230 upwards and patent lawyers are among the highest paid in a high paid profession.

Trademarks

A trademark (often referred to as a brand) is a distinctive sign which distinguishes your goods and services from those of your competitors. It can be words, logos or a combination of both. 

There are strict rules about what is and what is not considered an acceptable trademark – some of the rules are obvious, some not so obvious. 

The IPO has all the information – see here  and here. 

The only way to register your trade mark is to apply to the Intellectual Property Office, and to renew the registration periodically. An application for trademark registration starts at £170.

The above information is relevant to the UK only. I am not a lawyer, nor do I pretend to be one on the internet. If you need legal advice, ask a lawyer. If you want to know more about IP, read the wealth of information on ipo.gov.uk

A Crafter's Guide to Intellectual Property

How often have you heard someone say, about the cushion they've just made, 'Oh, I'm going to patent this squirrel design  - it's my intellectual property so you're not allowed to copy it' ?

Or about the idea they've had for a new way of running a profitable craft fair - 'I'm going to register it as copyright! It's my idea so I own it!'?

And how often have you thought 'Hmmm, I wonder if they can ...'? Or even 'I wonder how they can ...?'

The answer to those specific examples above is, no they can't.  At the very least,  they've got things very mixed up.

So what is intellectual property?

It is the expression of an idea. It could be a new technology, a song, a book, an invention, a painting or anything else created by the mind. 

It can be owned, bought and sold in the same way as any other property, and IP law enables you to protect your rights to your property, just as other laws help protect the other types of property you own.

In order to be protected, it must be expressed. 

There is no protection for an idea or a concept. The craft fair idea is just that - an idea, nothing more - and so there is nothing to protect until it is expressed in some way.

It must also be new and original. Remember that word – original. The cushion design is a squirrel. A cushion is not original; a design of a squirrel is unlikely to be original. 

There are four main types of IP protection in law; copyright and design are the ones most likely to be of interest to the crafter.

Copyright 

Copyright is free of charge and automatic. It is the most widely-known and recognised type of IP protection, and I dealt with it fairly thoroughly in my last-but-one post. As ever, if you want to know more, or check the legality or accuracy of anything I say, explore ipo.gov.uk

Design 

Design right protects the way something looks. 

There are two types of legal protection for designs.

UK design right is free and automatic. 

A Registered Design offers a greater level of protection; you must apply for it and pay a fee. 

Not all designs qualify for protection; anything that is commonplace, everyday or ordinary will not qualify; a significant degree of originality is required for a design to be protected. 

Some aspects of a design might not qualify for protection under this section of IP law. For instance, under automatic UK design right, surface ornamentation and other two-dimensional designs are excluded from design protection - although copyright law may come into play here, and protect the 2-d graphics.  A registered design excludes features dictated by technical function.

EU- wide protection is offered for both automatic design right and registered designs, under similar conditions to that of the UK. The IPO has an excellent table - which will help designers to decide what levels of protection are appropriate - on this page (scroll down a little way). 

Patents and trademarks to follow later.

Just to repeat - I am not a lawyer, I do not pretend to be a lawyer. If you want legal advice, ask a lawyer, and if you want to read the law on IP for yourself, there's a very good website I reference continually - ipo.gov.uk

Warning to creative makers and sellers

Warning - scammers at work!

I was going to post today about different types of 'rights' which might be relevant to the crafter, but I think that what I have just come across on the official IPO website is far more important.

See here: http://www.ipo.gov.uk/warning.htm

Misleading mock invoicing – letters which look 'official'. Even received by the IPO itself! 

BEWARE of such attempted scams and don't respond to them.

The forms you might need to register a design, file a patent application or register a trademark, and the official fees you might need to pay, are all clearly linked on www.ipo.gov.uk

You do not need to do anything or pay anything to anyone to hold copyright OR design right on an original work of your own. Whatever anyone might try to tell you.

Confusion on the Web

Crafting and Copyright in the UK

Part 1.

There's a lot of confusion out there in the crafting world as regards 'rights' - copyright, design right, trademark, patents ... in other words, all sorts of intellectual property rights.

Some of the information found on forums and the like is downright wrong, most is misleading and much is confusing. 

It is important to be aware that copyright law depends - it depends very largely on what country you are in, whether you are the copyright holder or not.   

What I write here is relevant to you if you are in the UK and the UK only.

If you are in Britain, whatever you read on an American (or Australian, or New Zealand, or even Ruritanian)  forum or blog about copyright or intellectual property rights might not - probably does not - apply to you - and vice versa, regardless of where the copyright work being discussed was first published.

First of all, and let's get this very clear, the word is 'copyright' not 'copywrite'. It's about rights - not about 'writing'. Well, it is about writing - and drawing, painting, composing ... about the rights which are held over such works.

Secondly, contrary to many statements I have read on t'internet, you don't need to actually do anything to obtain copyright on your own original, creative work - it's automatic. Anyone who tells you that you can register your copyright with them for only £X is doing nothing more than taking £X from you under false pretences - which is commonly known, in my neck of the woods at least, as 'theft'.

The international law covering copyright is known as the Berne Convention (its full title is actually 'The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works') and it dates from 1886. The UK signed it in 1887 (but didn't implement parts of it for some years); the US not until 1989! Almost all countries in the world (165 or so of them at last count) are signatories to the Convention.

Tomorrow - the differences between copyright, design right, trademark, patent and branding.

Any questions so far?


Please note that I am not a lawyer, nor do I pretend to be one on the internet. I am simply well-educated, with plenty of time, the ability to sift the chaff from the corn and I can access resources of all sorts.

Bias binding - and cat cravats!

I forgot to mention that all the bindings on the aprons I've recently sewn have been made on my bias-binding-making machine.

I'd been lusting after one for a while, and when I saw one at a vastly reduced price, I snapped it up. I know it's had mixed reviews, but I find it to be excellent - I can make metre after metre of perfectly-ironed tape, both bias and on-grain, with minimal input from me.

Here are just a few of the pretty tapes I've made - and used! - recently.

Bias tapes in profusion

Of course, I have lots of scraps with all this bias-making - when I cut the bias strips from a square, there are always a couple of neat triangles left over. They seemed to about right for a doll-sized scarf, or - wait for it! - a cat cravat!

I'm sure you're aware of, and perhaps have seen, dog bandanas. Well, here you have a cravat-wearing cat! She seems to like wearing her cravat - it fastens with a single press-stud so would easily come undone if it got caught on anything, but I try to avoid letting her out while she's wearing it, at least during the day - apart from anything else, it would label me publicly as a mad cat lady!

A cat in a cravat.

I

Calmer weather,and what to do with a room

The wind's dropped at last. The Christmas tree which I'm saving for stakes and pea sticks has been blown to the middle of the back lawn and two plastic cloches are now half under the garden shed but most of the overwintering pot plants and the spring bulbs are still upright and in one piece, and all others are recoverable.

I spent a considerable amount of time sewing over the last couple of days, and now have four aprons almost finished, and I'm happy with the fabric combinations I've used. They won't get done until after the weekend, though - gardening duties call tomorrow, with the fine weather forecast, and there will be visitors on Sunday, so tidying up and cooking will be the order of Saturday evening and Sunday morning.

I've had to put away my sewing - I really must set up my main machine, at least, in my bedroom or sort out the tiny boxroom I currently use for junk and seasonal stuff, and use that as a proper 'sewing room', or at least as a sewing storage room.

It's a funny little room, a bit of 'spare space' left over when the cottage was enlarged and the floor-plan entirely changed.  Although it still has the remnants of its original window-ledge discernible on the original back wall, it's too small for even a small single bed, and has no natural light. Why it was not linked to my bedroom, with which it shares a wall,  I really don't know. It would be an ideal size   to serve as an American-style 'walk-in closet' or an English-style dressing room, but is on the wrong side of the house to be an en-suite bathroom, at least by the plumbing technology easily available at the time the cottage was enlarged.

The previous resident here used it as a home office; I am really not sure about using it as a sewing room as it has no natural light, but it could be an excellent area for fittings, sewing accessories,  fabric storage and a 'hardware' section, if I decide to get more into corsetry ... I have a couple of friends who are going to be willing guineapigs so we'll see!

All Change!

I now live in an area where craft fairs, farmer's markets and the like have a very different demographic to my last home.

So some time ago I decided to change my focus from designer dolly clothes to something else, and see how it goes, for a time at least. But change it to what?

I was strolling through a local town - not one of the more prosperous ones, though - and in a very traditional hardware shop I saw an apron, a rather 'old-fashioned' apron by my standards, but clearly an on-trend. highly-desirable retro-style apron by the standards of the three young women who were admiring it.

Its price?

£85

Yes, you read that correctly. There was a whole rack of them in the shop. I say 'was' because the rack is now empty and those who enquire are told there are, it seems, 'no more to be had'.

EIGHTY FIVE POUNDS!!!

What the hell, I thought, I'll make a couple and see what my much younger, much more 'trend-aware' friends think of them.

Retro-style apron

 So I did.

Heck, I've been sewing for well over 50 years - everything from ball gowns to horse rugs via curtains, dog-clothes and christening robes - so a retro-style apron held no fears for me.

The main fabric was a chance find in Abakhan's bargain bins some time ago; the piece was about 3m long and cost me under £10. It's a 'Timeless Treasures' (USA) design which sells for well over that price per metre. I do like Abakhan's (well, the Manchester branch anyway - more on that another time)!

It's pure cotton - 'quilting weight' according to Timeless Treasure's website - and was a pleasure to handle and make up. The red spot used for the flounce, pocket binding and one side of the ties is also pure cotton, but a UK one, described as 'craft weight cotton'. It's as near identical in weight to the US quilting cotton as makes no matter, and was equally pleasant to work with. The red is an exact match to the red in the main print.

I was very happy with the result, and so are others - the apron pictured above was nabbed by an acquaintance who does farmer's markets (she's a baker and makes delicious yummy biscuits and cakes) and has been looking for a pretty, feminine, cotton apron with decent coverage. This lady is tall - about 5ft 10" - and a size 18 in RTW. Her only criticism was that the waist ties are a little too short (which I thought they would be - I was being economical with fabric on my prototype). Otherwise, it fit perfectly.  I too am a size 18 in RTW, but a totally different shape and considerably shorter; it fits perfectly. A teenager - 5ft 7", about a size 8 -10 - loved it and wants one 'exactly the same' as it fits perfectly. As the style doesn't bunch around the waist, it's flattering, too.

Cute button, or what?

The neck-strap fastens with these cute heart-shaped buttons; there are two buttonholes on each end of the strap so it's really very adjustable.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that it's fully lined - with another vintage-style cotton print, sourced from Immanuel Fabrics.

Waist-tie, bound pocket-top and lining.

See!
The lining fabric is so nice that it makes the apron fully reversible (except it doesn't have pockets on the reverse).

It's such a horrid day today that photography was difficult to say the least, but I hope you get the general effect.

I've got another three aprons 'on the go' - all using the same basic template, but with differences in trim, and with three very different fabrics and colours. It's not fit for a cat to be out today - my kitten looked at the weather for a moment then came back inside and used her litterbox - and half my garden has blown over the other half, but there's nothing I can do about it until the wind drops, so I may as well get on with my sewing.