Legal Context of the Fashion & Design industry - Essay Example

Design Protection in the United Kingdom Task: Design Protection in the United Kingdom A design is a unique appearance or formation of a product, considering its features and materials used to make it, which never existed in any earlier product of related features. Protection of designs may assume different forms including the security to protect unauthorized replication. Copyright and unregistered rights that protect designs apply on an undivided scale, under the international law. The legal system in the United Kingdom appreciates and identifies the rights of artists and entrepreneurs by protecting their designs (Dezeen Wire 2012, p. 1). In the UK’s legal system, every registered design attracts protection by the copyright law same to other creativity as literature.

The design council implements the protection of such laws in the country. Every registered design is subject to protection for the period during the life of the creator and an inclusive seventy years of security. The copyright law in the country protects artistic old and new artistic products and manufactured goods (Torremans 2009, p.11). The law protects UK’s exceptional designs from unauthorized replication. The registered designs act 1949 is the central rule that protects designs in the country (Bradgate & White 2007, p.438). The Act underwent reforms and effected in October 2006.

It entails the registration of diverse designs in the UK. It states, for the purpose of the act, the various means of infringement in the rights of designs that are registered. This protects the registered design protector’s rights from infringement from the public. The act provides for the restoration of rights in design that have passed the expiry dates. The act also protects any document that has information on the registered design from access by unauthorized parties or individuals. Copyright laws in the UK protects registered designs from unlawful reproduction (Davies & Cheng, 2011, p.57) References Bradgate, R & White, F 2007, Commercial Law, Oxford University Press, New York, NY.

Davies, C & Cheng, T 2011, IEL Intellectual Property Law in the United Kingdom, Kluwer Law International, Netherlands. Dezeen Wire, 2012, UK copyright law changed to protect design classics, Dezeen Magazine, viewed 27 March 2013. http://www.dezeen.com/2012/05/23/uk-copyright-law-changed-to-protect-design-classics/ Torremans, P 2009, Copyright Law: A Handbook of Contemporary Research, Edward Elgar Publishing, Northampton, MA.