Protecting your ideas: new approaches to design ownership for world artisans
What happens to the most successful items made by craftspeople? The answer from artisans around the world is often discouraging: "someone copied it and sold more of the copies than we sold of our original design!" Obviously, a factory can produce a large quantity at a lower price much more quickly than a handcraft group. And, these copies are usually sold in markets faraway from the artisan.
Opportunities to earn income and establish markets are lost to copying every year. Moreover, the creativity of people in developing countries is under-exploited and underdeveloped in important ways. One way artisans can fight back and make the most of their creativity and successful products is to think of their business as not one of just products, but of designs. Recognizing intellectual property of design can help artisans capitalize on the full potential of their talents.
While in most developing countries there is no effective legal protection for designs, property rights and the enforcement of rights are available and reasonably reliable in the U.S. and Europe. For example, under the principle of National Treatment, the U.S. is obliged to protect the copyrights, patents and trademarks of foreigners equally to those of U.S. residents. Experience in U.S. courts shows they treat foreigners and U.S. residents the same on these issues.
In addition to the U.S. and Europe, IP protection is possible for your creative products in most developed countries – including New Zealand, Australia, Canada and many middle income countries as well.
