Copyright infringement, advice needed

[carrieann]

I am writing on behalf of a friend. I do apologise if this is within the wrong thread.

 

My friend is a designer of a certain range of garments. She has a very particular signature style across her designs and has been in business designing such products since 2014. I understand the garment itself and its construction isn't copyrighted, however, her designs, which include texture, layout, colour and overall feel are protected automatically as the creator, is this correct?

 

It has recently come about that several new competitors have entered the market and have been copying and/or deriving designs from the original designs my friend has created. These designs are so close in comparison, that it could be easily misrepresented as one of hers and therefore damage her reputation, not to mention the financial loss.

 

A cease and desist letter was sent to all parties, however, this has so far been unsuccessful. I contacted each of them posing as a customer and asked that they might recreate one of her very best designs for me, and I got a resounding "yes of course, it'll cost xxxx". This clearly show that the competitor in question has no moral issue with the blatant copying of other people's intellectual property, and I wonder what rights my friend would have to fight this.

 

My concern is that if the competitor realises that nothing can be done, this will give her more reason to then continue copying and potentially get even worse in a bid to annoy.

 

What is the best course of action for such a case? Obviously my friend owns the right to her style and there are laws that are to protect her, however, with costs and such, it's a sticky position.

[AndyOrch]

Hi carrieann

 

The following links may be useful.

 

https://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/copyright/p05_copyright_infringement

 

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/intellectual-property-crime-and-infringement

 

Regards

 

Andy

[carrieann]

I've read some of this previously but the second link was particular insightful. Thank you for your response Andy. It has helped to put some things into perspective and I may have an idea.

[steampowered]

She may wish to consider registering a design right ... see https://www.gov.uk/design-right.

[carrieann]

Thank you. I'll check it out. The concern we have is that the designs are ongoing and cost prohibitive to register every item.

 

Another question if I may. If I push this person to actually recreate the design, would that become Deliberate infringement? and if so, am I right to think this comes under criminal law then and my friend would have a stronger case?

[steampowered]

Thank you. I'll check it out. The concern we have is that the designs are ongoing and cost prohibitive to register every item.

You register a design rather than an individual item. If the same design is used across different items, I imagine you'd only need the one registration.

 

Another question if I may. If I push this person to actually recreate the design, would that become Deliberate infringement? and if so, am I right to think this comes under criminal law then and my friend would have a stronger case?

Well if they haven't created infringing designs in the first place then they haven't done anything wrong.

 

I don't think your involvement would have any bearing on whether the copying is 'intentional' or 'unintentional'. Surely that is determined by the fact that a cease and desist letter has been sent. You may however create helpful evidence if keeping a proper record of emails.

 

To be clear, there is a criminal offence committed for marketing/selling/creating works which are known to infringe copyright. There is also criminal liability for intentionally copying registered designs. There is no criminal liability for copying unregistered designs.

[carrieann]

Ah, okay, thank you so much for your assistance. You've helped a lot. I really appreciate your time.