Copyrighting designs

[BedHog]

Years ago (early 1990s) when I started off as a designer, I was advised to print copies of any designs, seal them in an envelope and post them to myself by recorded delivery so I would have proof of the date should a copyright dispute go to court.

Does anyone know if this is still a sensible thing to do, or are there now so many other ways of proving the date of an image, particularly on the internet, that posting a hard copy is no longer necessary?

Basically I'm asking if it's safe to put images of new designs onto my Facebook business page, or if I need to do the post thing first? I realise that it's unlikely that anyone would copy my designs exactly or that I'd be able to afford a court case if they did, but I'm just interested to know what designers do these days.

Just put a copyright notice on your website.

The post it to yourself thing wasn't true anyway, or so I was told in design school, also in the '90s.

So just putting 'Design copyright 'BedHog' August 2012' as text accompanying the image would be enough? Or does it need to be a proper notification in scary legal jargon?

They are images of physical items, rather than a photo/graphic image which could be directly reproduced and would need a watermark.

So it's images of other work, say statues, and you need to copyright the statues? Is that right?

Cuz now I don't know. I have no idea how copyright on objects works. Sorry.

I found this, but it's US specific, so not sure how it pertains here!

Thanks Tee, that's an interesting article. Yes, it's images of 3D objects, so it wouldn't matter so much if someone printed pictures of the object, more someone looking at the picture and then making something the same. Also each item I make is slightly different, rather than a run of 1000 the same, so it's the concept rather than the exact style of each piece that I want to protect.

See, I'm wondering if you can.

I mean if you look at fashion, as soon as something hits the runaways, it appears at Primark, so surely that breaks the copyright on that 3D object, at least. So I honestly don't know how you prove something is your own work!

You actually might want to see if a solicitor who specializes in copyright can give you a free half hour, just to find out!

www.acid.uk.com/ Anti copying in design- this organisation may have some information?

Ipo.gov.uk website has some very good idiots guides.

And the post to yourself thing doesn't "give you copyright" (it exists automatically) it's just a cheap simple low tech way of proving that you invented the design on or before a certain day - if nothing else it protects you against accusations of plagiarism.

Thanks for the links Betty and Dilys, I'll check them out.

Yes, that's what I was wondering Dilys, if it's just the proof of date aspect that's important, wouldn't that date also be proveable through records of a Facebook timeline, or Twitter post, or upload records? We're told that internet histories are always traceable, so presumably that would include a link between an image and it's date of first being posted to the internet.

Possibly - the postmark thing dates from before the Internet (NB the point is to put the stamp on the closing side so the stamp and postmark make it obvious that it hasn't been opened up since the postmark date).

I'm sure there are more modern means of proving you created something at a certain time, and if you're confident in using them then that'll be fine.

You can attempt to prove the date and that you created it by lots of different methods. Indeed do quite a few, the more the better.

You need to look at whether you are talking about copyright or unregistered design right or both. They are different rights.