Knowing how to protect jewellery designs is essential for both a new business owner and a designer. You can use various types of intellectual property rights to protect your jewellery designs. These IP rights include designs, copyrights, trademarks, and patents. Some of these overlap in terms of what aspects they cover. However, for each right, there is a different law that regulates it. Moreover, each type has its pros and cons.
But which intellectual property right will be most suitable for you? To answer this, we will have a look at the various mechanisms of design protection. You will also find some valuable tips on how to prevent copying and more in this article:
Different modes of protecting jewellery designs
If you’re looking to protect your designs, first be sure that it is unique and new. Some intellectual property rights apply to your design as soon as you create it. Yet, for some other forms of protection, you will have to apply separately. Let’s see what aspects each form of protection covers and for how long:
Design registration
Design Registration is another term for design patents in India. You can protect the pattern, color, unique visual features of your jewellery design. They are an intellectual property right given to you by the government. Registering your design gives you the exclusive right to sell, use, or make the design. Thus others cannot make use of it without your permission. You can sue someone if you find them copying or using your design. When you copy a design without permission, you infringe on their design.
Fees & duration: The cost for registering a design varies from INR 6000/- to INR 10,000/- in India. Professional consultation fees and more services will incur more costs. In India, designs are valid for ten years from the date of registration. You can extend this period by five years by requesting the patent office. Thus, registered designs give you monopoly rights for up to 15 years to prevent copying. The Designs Act 2000 regulates cases related to design registrations in India.
Design registration – prevent the use of different materials for the same jewellery design.
This right carries over to the use of different materials for the same design also. For instance, let’s say a diamond ring has a unique, never-seen-before shape. Gold and diamond comprise different parts of the design. Now, someone else uses stones and platinum instead of gold and diamond for the same design. But with a registered design, you can stop them by legal means for using other materials for the same design. Thus using different materials for the same design is also an infringement.
You can also register a ‘set’.
As a jeweller, you might be wondering about registering a set of articles together. You can register pieces of the same design theme that you will sell and make together in a single application.
You can register a set if:
- It is several articles of the same general character that you intend to use or sell together.
- All the articles bear the same design.
- There is no change in the character or identity of the design with or without modification.
Copyright
Copyrights are the most common form of protection for jewellery. As you might know, the symbol © represents copyright. These are the rights you get as soon as you create an artwork. Copyrights protect artistic, literary, and dramatic works. These works may be drawings, sketches, audiovisual works, books, TV programs, films, etc. For jewellery designs, you can protect the unique visual and non-functional features of the designs. But, the primary need remains that the article is your original and unique work.
Registration for copyright is optional, yet, you must register to avail of its benefits in case of a legal dispute. Remember that you can protect the sketches or drawings of your jewellery designs with copyrights. And as compared with design registration, copyrights protect artistic works. These may be works of a person skilled in the craft. For a representation of the article, i.e., its real and natural look, you must consider registering a design.
Fees & duration: The cost for registering a single piece of artwork is INR 500. You can apply at the Copyright Office’s website and also find fee details for different types of works here. In India, the copyright term is valid for the lifetime of the designer plus 60 years. You can claim copyright for your design under the Copyright Act, 1957 in India.
Trademark
Remember when you saw “It’s finger-lickin’ good” on that KFC outlet? The unique logo of PC jewellers or the Cartier logo? These are some examples of trademarks we come across from day-to-day. Thus trademarks are signs that help a customer distinguish your products or brand from others. These signs may be your logo, name for a range of collections, a pattern of design, etc. Thus trademarks are vital, especially when you’re looking to establish your brand. Every new venture today needs something unique to stand apart from the competition. It takes years to build recognition but minutes to copy it. Thus, trademarks help protect the unique name, logo, word, motto, or a combination of these.
A related form of intellectual property right is the trade dress. Trade dress is the look and feel of a product you associate with because of how it’s marketed. For example, the red-yellow theme of McDonald’s represents its products and packaging. You can protect the color theme and the packaging of your designs with trade dress.
Fees & duration: Trademark e-filing in India costs INR 4500/- for an individual. As soon as you receive the trademark, you can use the symbol ® to show a registered trademark. Note that people use the symbol ™ when they’re planning to register a trademark but haven’t. A trademark is valid for ten years from the date you applied. After that, you can renew the trademark before expiry for another ten years.
Patent
When someone talks about a patent, they usually mean a utility patent. Unlike designs, patents help protect inventions. These inventions have some novel features and are technical solutions to a problem.
So how can you use patents for jewellery designs? You can protect the functional aspects of your design with patents. For example, you can patent a unique mechanism for locking the clasps of a piece of jewellery. A new method of interlocking a bracelet, earrings, etc. are some other examples. You can also find granted patents on the manufacturing method, composition, etc., related to jewellery designs. Since utility patents cover novel, useful features, they are not as popular as designs or copyrights for jewellery. Getting a utility patent is also the hardest of all these methods. It requires a study of novelty, a lengthy procedure involving examination, and then you might get a patent.
Fees & duration: As a minimum estimate, it may cost INR 40,000/- to get a patent in India. Utility patents have a term of 20 years from the date you file your application. Since the scope of patents is vast, and there can be similar inventions, you will need an IP professional onboard. The cost then varies as per the firm and services you need.
Know this if you’re going to produce a design more than 50 times!
There is often a debate on what aspects registered designs and copyrights cover. Even though design and copyright overlap in this regard, the law prevents the misuse of copyrights. Designs will cover the natural aspects of your design with photographs or images. At the same time, copyright will protect sketches of your design. As per laws, if you can register a product with a design patent, you cannot register copyright. Copyright protection stops when you produce an article for an industrial purpose more than 50 times. This condition holds even when you can protect the article with a design patent but haven’t. Thus, when you know that you will produce the design more than 50 times, it is better to register a design.
How to prevent copying of your jewellery design?
To take advantage of registering your design, you have to be vigilant in preventing copying of your designs. The patent office will not track any ‘infringers’ or ‘copycats’ of your designs. So prevention is better than cure. The responsibility to track, check, and sue for potential theft is on the design owner. Consider these as approaches to safeguard your designs:
Keep a trail of documentation.
It is good to keep a trail of the display of your design anywhere in public. Make notes of when you displayed the article in an exhibit or shared an image on social media. Also, keep documents related to communications with the office, the certificate, photographs, etc. These come in handy as proof that you were the first and original creator of the design.
No cameras, please!
Phones and cameras give instant and durable access to photographs of your designs. For exclusive designs, you can put a request banner to prohibit using phones or taking pictures.
Know your visitors.
So you had an interesting conversation with a visitor at your store or an exhibit. Not every visitor may be looking to buy your designs. Some might be so impressed that they want to copy and use them. Thus, sometimes it is wise to be vigilant of the visitors. It is better to request business cards of visitors who may be very keen on your designs in such cases. This will alert them as well as help build potential customers in your business.
Label your products.
Marking your products with a design number or the symbols © or ® deters anybody from copying your designs. You can also place disclaimers to warn infringers from copying registered designs.
Watermark photos of your design.
When displaying your products on a public platform, use watermarks on your website photos of designs. Watermarking the background of your images will discourage at least the use of your images. Besides, it will act as a deterrent to copycats from copying your designs.
As stated earlier, the onus of monitoring, tracking, and suing copycats lies with the owner. Yet, there is no harm in taking precautions for protecting your designs, even if they’re registered. You can then file a lawsuit on providing enough evidence of an infringer.
What if my design is already copied?
There may be a chance of finding an infringer despite registering and taking measures to prevent copying of your design. If you find that someone has copied your design, even if it seems flattering, it can harm your business. But do not panic! Any legal proceeding will need enough proof that they copied your design. So tread carefully and consider the following before taking action:
Collect evidence – be sure!
Before you file a lawsuit against someone who copied your design, you need to to collect evidence. Make sure that the other party intended to copy your design directly. Otherwise, you might incur a higher cost of prosecuting than you could earn with claiming damages. Sometimes the other party instead can sue you due to a lack of evidence.
Notify the person.
A statutory warning to a potential copycat should be your first resort if the evidence is enough. Such notification should deter them from using your design any further. Sometimes people may infringe on your design without the intention of doing so. Thus notifying them as a warning to stop using your design can solve the problem. If even after a legal notice, they do not stop, then you can claim your right to the design protection and file a case.
Seek legal help.
When there is significant harm to your business, you might seek help from a law professional. You can then claim compensation for the damages it has caused to your business. These may result in loss of business, clientele, and uniqueness in your designs.
How to search for an already registered design?
What if you made a design that already exists? It will lead to infringement. You should not use or sell an already registered design. IP professionals will always tell you to search the same design before filing for its protection. It is often called the prior art search. IP searchers, firms, and patent offices search for any relevant designs like yours that exist before it. In such a case, you can buy these services or perform prelim searches on your own. If you have little experience, the former may be a better choice.
All countries have their regional databases for different forms of intellectual property rights. Besides these, there are commercial databases as well that IP professionals use to find relevant prior art. For each type of IP right, there is a different database. You can search for prior art by entering keywords relevant to the design on each database.
Which is the best mode of protection?
To sum up, you must consider the various forms of protection for your design. First, identify which feature is it that needs protection. For example, if you’re starting a business and want to name your products and logo, a trademark will be relevant. For designs having non-functional and aesthetic features, design or copyright will be relevant. And for useful features, you might consider utility patents. Patents have strong coverage due to stricter procedures and are valid for 20 years from your application date.
To arrive at a decision, make a break-even analysis of how much it will cost to register against the profit you will earn by protecting your design. Do remember to check if your design already exists. After that, it is up to you to make the most of your creativity. Choose wisely!