A copyright gives ownership to an invention, idea, design or any creation as an “intellectual property”. Hence, no one can copy, steal or make profit of something with a copyright without permission from the owner. And with today’s advancement in technology; designers, inventors and writers just to name a few lean on to copyrights to protect their hard work. It has been a global crusade against those who steal ideas and concepts and use them for profit-making.
You can have copyrights for many types of works, concepts and information within a specific period of time. Some of the things are softwares, logos, designs, photographs, movies, poems, music compositions and many more.
Same is true for designs for art works even for wall decorations or those found in your child’s beddings. If these designs have copyrights, no one should copy in any purpose. And if you are creating these designs, protect your designs and your talents as well through copyrights.
Copyrighting your designs
Do not wait for someone to copy your design before deciding to copyright them. Most people think that copyrights are for inventions and ideas only but this is extended to designs like those jewelries, websites or sculptured art works. As long as these things are tangible and your original creation, you can have its copyright and become your property.
Remember that your designs represent yourself as an artist and give you a trademark. You attract and gain clients through your unique and artistic designs. These are your main tools in achieving something big in any industry you are into since they set you apart from others. Hence, it is very important to own the copyrights of your designs – you worked hard to conceptualize those designs, thus nobody has a right to steal and copy your designs.
Copyright Owners
If you are a designer and working in a company, you must be aware of who owns the copyright. In history, there are many inventors that do not own the copyrights of their inventions but their company or the company that commissioned such work. There is a difference between, the creator and the copyright owner.
Let’s take the case of Dennis DeJesus who created Disenyo Tiles, a wall decorating sculptured tiles. He was the one conceptualizing and creating the designs for the tiles but was in partnership with his friends. When he had the copyright for his designs – the company was placed as the copyright owner. And when he left the company, he no longer holds the copyright for his designs. So even if he was the one creating the designs, his old business partners can sell them or make profits without asking for his consent.
The moral of this story is that you must place yourself as the copyright owner of your designs. In effect, you can keep the copyrights of your designs even if you part ways with your business partners or from any company that you were once affiliated with. You created the designs; hence, they must solely be yours. Again, do not value your talent and skills by joining the crusades of copyrighting designs and other works.