After revealing your design, it's crucial to protect your intellectual property. Here are effective strategies:
- Document your creation process meticulously to establish originality and date of inception.
- Register for copyright or design patents where applicable to legally protect your work.
- Address the issue directly with the copier, seeking legal advice if necessary to negotiate or enforce your rights.
How do you handle it when someone copies your creative work? Share your strategies.
If you do client work then make sure to be clear in the contract that the IP belongs to you during the entire project until final payment has been made by the client. Make it clear what intellectual property goes over to the client and if there is anything that remains yours. And always include a non disclosure agreement.
It has happend a few times to me, usually after products I designed were launched. If it's a concept intended for my portfolio, I don't worry about it too much. Sure I am a little annoyed but in the end if someone copies my ideas they must have liked it and probably don't have the skills needed to create their own. Once I received a portfolio with my work in it, needless to say they did not get the job. When it's client work, the work should be protected before it is made public. If it's an innovation it will have a patent filled, if it is about protecting the design there are ways of doing that too, depending on what markets the product is intended for. Usually I leave this up to my clients but occasionally I file for them.
Un compa?ero de profesión me comentó que una vez publicas en internet un dise?o tuyo, un producto innovador, dispones de dos a?os de "propiedad intelectual" del producto. Aunque la publicación puede servir como prueba de autoría en ciertos casos, dudo que garantice los derechos exclusivos de explotación o fabricación del dise?o. ?Alguien conoce cómo funciona este tema a partir de la publicación online de un producto? Creo que es un tema super interesante
Stay Innovative! The best defense is continuous innovation. By consistently pushing the boundaries of design, I can stay ahead of those who attempt to imitate my work, reinforcing my creative vision in future projects.
Before any public disclosure of intellectual property (IP), there needs to be a business strategy in place for IP protection and/or open sourcing. IP protection is a business model decision, not an obligatory course of action for every product development program. In the case of stolen IP with legal protection rights such as a government registered patent or copyright in place, the IP owner will be able to execute on their previously formed plan on what to do. Sometimes this is having a process of escalation from cease and desist orders, to attorney action, or perhaps licensing negotiation deals at the ready to leverage copycats into an amicable win-win agreement. Public disclosure should always be preceded by an IP protection plan.