copy right law

[Jargon]

I am designing t-shirts, does anybody know the quickest and easiest and cheapest way to copyright my designs.

[Hgrove]

Copyrighting is not something you do.  Once you have given expression to an idea, it is automatically protected by copyright.  It is not something you apply for or register etc.  If it is t-shirts, there may be other ways of protecting your intellectual property rights, for ex. the "registered design" and the "design right" (two different things) - unfortunately I don't know enough about it to advise you.  Perhaps you could contact a college of fashion?  I think, as part of their syllabus, they must teach their students how to protect their creations.

[LordyGeordie]

Hgrove is almost right. There is actually no legal way of copyrighting something. In actual fact the 'c' with a circle symbol round it means absolutely nothing legally. However, what it does tend to signify is that the person who has written that article, painted that picture etc. is identifying themself as the author of that work and it is a warning to would-be plagiarists to keep their hands off.

Presumably what you don't want is some multi-national T-shirt company (or street hawker for that matter) nicking your designs and claiming them as their own. Basically as long as you can prove that you are the original author of the design if it ever came to a court case you'd stand a pretty good chance.

The most legally watertight way of doing this is to file copies of your designs with a solicitor, but this can be expensive. Signed statements from people who would swear you were the author is another way. Even something simple like photographing your designs as you do them and keeping a written record with dates etc. could all help prove in court that you made the designs if it ever came to that.

If your designs become well known you might also want to think about a trademark. This will prevent people from trying to pass of imitations of your work. A trademark can be something like your signature or a design like the Nike swoosh. I'm not excactly sure of how you go about applying for one of these but a solicitor would be a good start.

Good luck

[Jules001]

I have heard that if you post yourself the designs with the date included and don't open them when they are delivered back to you, this will provide dated evidence of your claim to the copyright. Just keep the envelope safe somewhere when it comes back to you. You might want to check this information elsewhere as I can't be absolutely sure it is watertight - it is only what I have been told.

[Hgrove]

You can find out more on the following link:

http://www.intellectual-property.gov.uk/

the UK government intellectual property site.  It has a link to the Trademark office in case you want to try and register your t-shirt designs as a trademark but I am actually quite sure you would not be able to.

I have to disagree that the little c in a circle is meaningless though.  It actually means that you are asserting your copyright under the Universal Copyright Convention of 1952.  You need the little c, your name and date.  If you are asserting your copyright under the Berne Copyright Convention of 1886, you don't need any of those.  The distinction nowadays is unnecessary.  It only exists because, in the past, certain countries had only signed up to one but not both conventions.  For ex. originally the US had only signed up to the UCC.  However, nowadays virtually all countries in the world have signed up to both conventions, so you don't need to worry about that any more.

[simms]

And in addition to all the sterling advice so far, I would add that copyrighting something is only any good if you have the means to enforce it, ie, what are you going to do if someone rips off your design? You need money to pursue that kind of legal action.

[Hgrove]

Very true, Simms.  The best policy is to keep the designs confidential until you are ready to exploit them commercially, move fast, and then if someone starts copying them, come up with a new design.  At least this is what I think.