One of the reasons for this state of Affairs – poor development of the Institute of intellectual property in the industry. If composers, performers, Directors and producers have long realized that the creative product is worth the money, designers are only beginning to understand how the tools work for the protection and monetization of intellectual property rights. Industry representatives told the Newspaper what issues to them most relevant, and the lawyers explained how to solve them.
the Terminal of the Moscow airport are almost all good. The only downside is the furniture. Scattered pieces of the interior give the impression of the apartment after the move. Trying to solve the problem, the company turned to the design Bureau. The draft of the new space was ready in three days, all the furniture would cost less than one and a half million rubles. It seemed that the airport is satisfied with everything. Soon, however, the company has not announced a competition for the purchase and manufacture of furniture. At the same time in social networks one of the Russian furniture factories there were pictures of chairs are extremely similar to those that developed a design Bureau as well as news about that soon the factory will furnish the airport.
it would Seem that the attack on intellectual property rights is quite obvious. But the designers were reluctant to go to court, preferring the proceeding campaign of public condemnation on social networks.
this situation happens all the time. “One of our customers – the fashion house – was faced with the fact that the boots that they design in Russia and to give otshiv in Turkey, the competitors appear three days earlier than them. With absolutely the same design and style, that is a full copy. Competitors still have the audacity to advertise them on Instagram and talk about “his” creative design”, – said the founder of the system of management of intellectual property rights IREG, doctor of legal Sciences Galina Dobryakova. According to her, the abuse was curbed only after designers started to Deposit before sending projects to manufacturers. Most important, the Deposit system has learned to capture the data in the public blockchain-network IPChain. Dozens of independent nodes from “SKOLKOVO” and the Russian author’s society to Rospatent and Court for intellectual property rights – record information about the created object design so that to correct either the situation or the date and time of creation then it is impossible. Such information may be presented as evidence in the courts of most developed economies.
According to the Chairman of the Association of professional product design (ASPD) Anastasia Krylova, one of the key issues the industry is the lack of knowledge about the legal tools concepts, projects, industrial designs and other nematerial��mi assets. In turn, the lack of knowledge rests on the low level of General business culture – corporate customers are buying a fake, not even thinking about the legal and reputational consequences, and private clients, without batting an eye, ask them to copy the interior of the log.
“Designers are afraid to send the designs to the clients and organizers of the competitions – concepts. They justifiably fear that the design will copy and give to someone who will do it cheaper and get not only the money for the exclusive right, but credit for authorship. So the dialogue between producers and designers is built is very difficult,” – said Krylov.
the Isolation of designers from other creative industries are obvious, the expert believes. Designers rarely take part in the events dedicated to intellectual property, because they do not fully understand how the agenda of these meetings relates to issues of their professional community. Partly to solve this problem is intended educational project IP Design Day, conceived of ASPD, together with the intellectual property Federation (FIS).
the President of FIS, teacher Digital IP Sergey Matveev noted that, although intellectual property rights – how they arise and are transferred from the Creator to the producer is determined by law, not less important are the customs of the business turnover. “The field of industrial design in Russia has been late with the formation of such customs and practices, but this is the best – still the old “paper” world, the world of “intermediaries” in the field of intellectual property is not even bursting at the seams, he just crumbles under the onslaught of digital technology. And I mean technology of creation of new creative products and fixing the rights to them, rights-based transactions and, finally, detection of violations of human rights and their protection, including in court. So we have in the field of design has a chance to be not even in the first car of the train and become the driver of the locomotive,” – said the expert.
in addition, in December 2019, the Association presented the service of the Russian Design Council, which operates in the blockchain ecosystem IPChain. Today, the service makes it easy to Deposit the sketches and projects, thereby Reaffirming their copyright protection, and if necessary to the protection of intellectual property (for example, when you register using the Online Patent to an industrial design). In the future, the service should expand the functionality to fully commit to the transfer of rights to the employer or customer.
the peculiarity of the Institute of intellectual property in that same object, you can protect in different ways. The easiest way to protect copyright. It works by default, free of charge, without any additional effort, a lifetime and another 70 years after the death of the Creator. When this mode of protection is protected only form: text, image, melody. Enough to make changes and the author can not prove the fact of plagiarism with no legal expertise. Though the authorship and occurs effortlessly, in case of conflict it will have to prove it. That is why, a century ago people made a straw, sending manuscripts by mail themselves.
not everyone knows what to protect the invention by using special services, fixing the time of creation of the facility and guaranteeing its safety and permanence – no longer in the inventory of the envelope, and the chain codes. According to this principle the Russian Design Council, for example, the service is RIS’n. The blockchain technology has revolutionised not only in the area of the Deposit, but throughout the sphere of intellectual property – including rights-based transactions. According to Director General of the world intellectual property organization (WIPO) Francis Gurry, Russia has moved in this practice further than other countries. Now picture, a manuscript or a design project do not need to carry the creative Union, to the notary or mail (at the risk of running into those same criminals) – it is enough to use the resources of the blockchain infrastructure.
“a Deposition is a question of price efficiency. If you have developed a design project, the price is 800-900 thousand rubles, probably, a thousand rubles for the Deposit can be given” – considers the Vice-President for legal Affairs of the Union of artists of Russia Konstantin Markov. Answering questions from designers about depositing hundreds of sketches, he explains that the main thing – to place in the Depository base pattern that adversaries can intercept and immediately start production. However, services like RIS’n allows you to place collections of drawings. You pay for the album, place a series of sketches, each of them is protected separately.
If you think someone is too “inspired” your work, it makes sense to seek the opinion of a specialist. In the case of industrial design are best suited the Stroganov school. Art examination involves conducting judicial proceedings or investigations, and expert opinion can be gained for a small fee. Subsequently, it will be a great help in protecting your rights.
However, according to Markov, is most often plagiarism is not to blame designers and customers. “Client brings some Italian magazine and said, “I want this apartment.” Only he does not consider that, typically, design projects are presented in electronic form and may not have any relation to real photographs. But if this is a real photograph and, God forbid, designer to fall for that, he can be trouble. He has to convince the customer that it is possible ��to do better than in the photo. It is clear that money is not love – do not suggest twice, but I don’t want them to be,” – said the expert.
the Deposit is important not only designers, but also businesses that use their products as a service works or employed them as contractors, Dobryakova said: “Many companies that we work with, I think that it is enough to sign a contract, and that the process of protecting the ends, but it’s not. If you are attached to the contract a certificate of deposition, then it is an empty Treaty.”
the Company can easily become victims of unscrupulous employees or contractors: sufficient to remove from the production server thumbnails work, and the firm will never prove his authorship, the expert adds. Visual design elements and franchajzingovyh network of companies created by the designers, also need protection. If the company does not take measures in advance, the competitor will easily open institution with similar design but different name.
“In my practice there was a case when the contractor was able to protect a work in a patent for an industrial design, which is extremely rare. Because the agreement was not recorded visual characteristics of the transferred object and didn’t even have a layout, the Chamber for patent disputes did not take into account the claims of the customer,” – said the expert.
the Best way to protect yourself is to attach the pattern directly to the contract and to Deposit all the results obtained in the workplace, believes Dobryakova. The practice is useful not only to employers but also designers, from which are moral rights. For example, they can use the work in portfolios or to prove their merits, claiming the prize.
Design can be protected by a patent, an industrial design, but it needs to be new and original. Such examination makes to the national patent office in Russia – Rospatent. Recently the state Duma adopted in the first reading the bill about the fact that the examination can be carried out by independent scientific organizations. However, the decision on the grant of a patent based on the results of the examination, will still make the Rospatent are the requirements of international agreements. Now the bill applies only to inventions and utility models, but experts believe that the second reading of the text of the document should include preobresti.
the Main advantage of protection design in the form of industrial design that the right holder can prevent not only direct copying of an entire work or elements thereof, but also the production of similar products. If the product leaves the consumer a similar visual impression, the right owner appears, the basis to claim a violation excluchiteleva law.
the CEO of Online Patent, patent attorney and lecturer in Digital IP Alina Akinshina noted that the copyright regime is a wonderful opportunity to confirm their right to object design. This can be done simply by the presumed authorship – for example, to place the object in the Depository. However, in some cases, it is appropriate to consider the application for design: “If we are talking about pieces of furniture or clothing, packs, lights and any other objects intended for mass production, – protection in the copyright regime is unlikely to be enough. Companies and designers that create such solutions, you should think about expanding the scope of legal protection of their developments by obtaining a patent for an industrial design – at least in order not to be on the site of the furniture company, whose products were used in the creation of fakes.”
Despite evidence of abuse, copyright is unlikely to save you in a situation in which the company that produces the original interior, the expert explained: “the Trick is that copyright infringement is the use of the work itself. Russian factory to produce chairs according to the drawings of the Moscow design Bureau. It just produces similar chairs or, at least, claims that it looks that way. The creation of products in some extent similar to someone else’s copyright, it is not allowed.”
the presence of a patent for an industrial design, the situation would look completely different. “The infringement of exclusive right to an industrial design may be installed in the case, if the same overall visual impression produced by the object of design on the consumer. That is, if not to take in the subtleties, manufacture of chairs similar to the patented chair – regardless of the fact of awareness of the producer about the existence of the patent violates the rights of the patentee,” concluded Akinshina.
