A human friend since time immemorial
Jewellery is one of the most sought out fashion accessories of all times and has attracted both men and women alike. Both the gender have consistently sported jewelleries of different forms and figure since time immemorial and the same is now a synonym to fashion and beauty.
Over the recent years, the call for fashion and convention jewellery has increased rapidly, thanks, in part, to the capability to sell jewellery on the internet, heightened jewellery design understanding such as CAD and 3D printing, social media, and just again to, good old consumer trends.
Growing demands and increased need to cater the products to various sections of the consumer have always stimulated “Copycat Designs” or “Knock offs” as the same eventually serves all the sections of consumers.
‘Copycat’ designs are nothing new to the fashion and designing industry. In the last decade, with the increase in buying capacity of people, rise in the standard of living, cross border presence, online or web availability have hit the roof for the consumers, who are always in the rat race to own and display the best trend of the time. The escalating demand for “fast fashion” and bargain hunting alike have made knock-offs predominantly attractive to the consumer’s unquenchable desire. This trend has also gained prominence in the jewellery industry where copying of popular designs is an all-too-familiar issue jewellery designers face.
Intellectual Property
Any tangible or intangible creation of the human mind is the Intellectual Property of the creator. The creation may be an artistic, dramatic or literary work, an invention or innovation, a design, a formula or Trade-secret.
Protecting Intellectual Property is serious to uphold an atmosphere that encourages innovation, inventions, arts and of course business. Intellectual Property legislation does this by safeguarding a creator, who can receive appreciation for, exclusively get benefits economically from, and prevent unsanctioned usage of their original creations or inventions by others. Intellectual property generally falls into four categories, each carrying its own legal processes and legislations:
- Trademark
- Copyright
- Patent
- Design
Intellectual Property in Jewellery designs
While fashion was customarily omitted for copyright protection, there is something else that is excluded from this exclusion. Jewellery Designs, in contrast to other fashion segments, is eligible for getting copyright protection.
Like all other artistic work, jewellery acquires copyright protections immediately upon production. However, most countries provide for a due process of law for getting the work registered with the government authorities.
At this point, you might be wondering for the difference between copyright protection and Patent protection. Here I present a very simple explanation that may help clear things up. A patent protects new ideas, techniques, methods and concepts for the exclusive use and commercial benefit of the inventor or creator. On the other hand, copyright safeguards the tangible and physical expression of an idea but not the idea itself, in contrast to a patent which protects the ideas and concepts.
When contrasted with the attire industry, Jewellery fashioners and designers, by and large, have more licensed Intellectual Property alternatives available to them to help address the issue of copying. While not all jewellery designs are protectable through different types of IP legislations, originators ought to be comfortable with and investigate the potential choices to best secure their unique structures and designs against quick design copyists and other copycat Jewellery.
As a result, many jewellery designers are increasingly concerned about protecting their designs, since their key pieces can actually define their reputation.
How to protect Jewellery
Copyright holders of jewellery design own a bundle of exclusive rights in their work, including rights of reproduction, distribution and the right to create derivative works based on the copyrighted work.
Jewellery is copyrighted when it is delivered or produced, similar to some other original creation. However, to make lawful action as per the legislation and to move against a case of copyright infringement, the designs must be officially registered with the IP office of the country. Jewellery can be copyrighted as individual pieces, or as accumulations of collection to minimise the administrative work and cost of the procedure. It takes a couple of months for the Intellectual Property Office to issue the Copyright registration certificate.
How to protect the collection of Jewellery
We often get the query that how can a collection of Jewellery, or many pieces or Jewellery designs be protected. A collection or group of many pieces of artwork may possibly be secured through a single copyright application only if each work in the collection is in a similar kind of medium or have the same theme, the majority of the works or jewellery designs have a similar creator, and at any pint of time one of the creators has added to all of the works. Published works may be registered in a single application if they are considered a Single Unit of Publication and the claimant is the owner of all portions of the “unit.”
How copyright Laws are beneficial
In general, the lawful procedures governing Intellectual Property are intended to cultivate advancement, innovation and creativity while furnishing all natives and residents with reasonable access to local and international laws. By enabling makers to be sole financial recipients of their unique work, the framework gives financial impetus to residents to make progress toward perfection in their picked specialities and chosen crafts. At the point when inventive individuals do their best work, society in general benefits from the expanded nature of administrations, items, and data accessibility. Reasonable Use regulation further gives intends to the overall population to profit by copyrighted Jewellery and different manifestations without damaging the copyright proprietor’s sovereignty over his or her work.
We at ADAM IP have a rich experience of protecting the Intellectual Property rights of our varied clients. We have successfully registered, protected and managed the Trademarks and Copyrights of our many clients who hail from the Jewellery Industry. For more information please feel free to contact us.
