How to Legally Protect designs..?

[Glen]

How do you legally copyright a design of your own..?

[smartarts]

My wife says if it is artwork she was taught at art college to print it out in "hard copy" and post it to either yourself or your solicitor but DON'T open the sealed envelope.

[Glen]

Thanks mate..heard something about that to..

[Justin]

I have copies of all my own artwork held with a Uk copyright service, it wasn't expensive and covers me for 10 years. In the event of anyone copying they will deal with all paperwork etc.

[JSR]

Ultimately, there's no such thing as "legally copyrighting" something because copyright is assigned to the original creator of the work automatically. The only issue comes in trying to prove original work when someone else decides they want to rip you off.

Even then, you have to weigh up whether it's worth all the trouble of defending the case.

The trouble with the old "post it to yourself and don't open" old chestnut is that it'd be fairly easy for someone else to forge a similar thing with an earlier date. There's a whole industry of fakers out there these days.

I have copies of all my own artwork held with a Uk copyright service, it wasn't expensive and covers me for 10 years. In the event of anyone copying they will deal with all paperwork etc.

Which service do you use, Justin, and what do they charge?

[Justin]

[url="http://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/]http://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/[/url]

I think this was the place, £37 for 5 years protection and unless it's changed, you can upload as many files (Zipped etc.) up to 10Mb.

[JSR]

http://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/

I think this was the place, £37 for 5 years protection and unless it's changed, you can upload as many files (Zipped etc.) up to 10Mb.

Thanks.

I'm curious to your understanding of "In the event of anyone copying they will deal with all paperwork etc." because all I read is the following -

In the event of a dispute, UKCS can act as an impartial independent witness, providing evidence to authenticate your claim:

We can verify when the work was first registered by means of a certificate of registration, (further copies can be made at your request), and at your instruction we can produce copies of the work as proof of the content of your work at the registration date, these can be sent to any address you specify, this may be your solicitor, or the judge/tribunal dealing with your case.

They don't "deal with all paperwork, etc", they just act as a remote witness. You still have to do all the legal leg-work involving solicitors and the like yourself. And, if the other party has a better "witness" (or, more likely, better lawyers), you've wasted your money.

[John G]

The problem being is that it looks very cheap to register your work but they don't actually protect it. They'll supply proof of ownership to any address but won't chase your claim for you - I think you would have to do this through the courts yourself. This would be very costly if everytime you thought someone was copying your designs, you had to take them to court.

Cheers John

[smartarts]

My wife had a case of a firm copying a piece of her artwork, I went into a pub one night and a large print of hers was hung on the wall. As we didn't do one that big I asked the landlord and he said Vaux brewerys had supplied it, I rang trading standards who contacted them. They tried to tell him they could not see what all the fuss was about, as it was only a tupence halfpenny country artist. I was told you could see the trading standards mans teeth marks in the ceiling , we got a very humble letter of apology from Vaux and they were told if they did anything like it again, tupence halfpenny or not they would be taken to court. The trading standards man asked if, rather than destroying the picture they could keep it in their evidence room, his office I suspect. LOL