GDE 730

WEEK 3

Legal and IP Frameworks

This week we focused on intellectual property and copyright. The idea was to be able to recognize if copyright was being infringed upon and the relevance to the graphic design practice. 

The main question driving the week was:

How do you protect and prepare yourself in relation to the ownership of intellectual property rights, and defend yourself from infringement?

Lecture – Copyright Overview and Principles

Legal_Header

Copyright is common sense...The key there is just to document your work so that, if someone does accuse you of copying them, you can point back and say I’m terribly sorry you think that’s the case but this was me.

Jonny Maynerm, Freeths LLP.

I enjoyed the podcast like style of the conversation with IP lawyers from Freeths. This weeks material wasn't very new to me, most of the points made by the lawyers I have come across and heard of before. The biggest takeway was that a solid and clear written contract should be in place. In a way I was hoping the workshop challenge could have been a written contract, it would have helped with the production of assignment 1. 

I summarize key takeaways from the podcast in the notes below:

GDE730_Week3LectureNotes

From the lecture and researching for the workshop challenge I found in the case I chose public opinion on social media was more impactful in getting the famous fashion designers to take down their copied products in the UK. I unpack this further below in the Workshop Challenge section.

Workshop Challenge

CHALLENGE: Select a designed object and highlight the key areas that may infringe copyright or require IP protection.

For this week's workshop challenge the designed object I chose was a men's shoe design that the designer Paul Smith put up for sale on his website in 2014. When it was first launched the shoe design created an uproar on social media. Every Pakistani was wondering why Paul Smith was selling a shoe that looked exactly like the shoes that men in Pakistan wer and are known for crafting for over 200 years.

RobertSandals2

When I researched more into this to try and see if copyright had been infringed. I found myself not being able to find anything in the lecture or in standard copyright law that could possibly protect this product. Although it was a clear rip off! Who would own the patent? This was a cultural handcraft. No one indivudual or business could own the design and yet it has a distinct and unique style, identity, it is the 'Peshawari Chappal', the most popular type of shoe worn by men in Pakistan.

If one were to file a case who would 'own' the design of the 'Peshawari Chappal', or as Sir Paul would call it the 'Robert Sandal.'

There seems to be more questions than answers. How can a product design be protected from sale in another market at an exorbitant price when there is no patent or copyright to protect it. This bothered me a lot.

At this point I began to wonder if I should just choose another designed object that had areas of patent and copyright infringement. I thought of Christian Louboutin and his case on YSL for creating a full red suede shoe infringing the "Red Sole Mark" that Louboutin has trademarked in many countries. I learned that colour per se can't be copyrighted unless it functions like a logo, or is inherent to the identity of the product. Like the pink insulation that used inside dry walls. Louboutin doesn't own the colour red, and he can't claim copyright if the whole shoe is red, as it's not a sole feature (pun intended). He can claim copyright if it is the contrasting feature of a shoe or if other shoes with red soles look like a Louboutin. 

Funny enough while researching Louboutin, I found that Louboutin himself also designed a 'Peshawari Chappal" and called his 'design' the 'Imran Sandal' and shared it on his social media. Just like Paul Smith's 'Robert Sandal' within a few hours of the post there was a social media uproar and Louboutin apologized and removed the design.

ImranSandals

So here I was back at the 'Peshawari Chappal'. I could not stop being bothered by the cultural appropriation by these top western brands. In Paul Smith's case it was also public opinion and several online petitions with signatures that caused him to own up and change the description on his website to remove the name 'Robert Sandal' and add 'inspired by Peshawari Chappal' to his site. At this point I reached out to Frauke for a tutorial and she urged me to go with looking into the cultural appropriation angle and to raise the questions as to why there were gaps in the law, if any.

RobertSandals1

So I began to ask: Is there nothing the World Intellectual Property Organization can do to protect from cultural appropriation and brands selling and branding a culture and nation's products as their own? I gave into the impetus and started to search to see if this clear case of infringement has any chance of legal protection.

And, it appears there is.

This form of protection for cultural handicrafts or any product whose identity is tied to a culture or a geographical location can apply for some called a GI tag. GI referes to Geographical Indication. It can only be awarded for one product to one country and prevent any on in the world from selling it as their own, and prevents businessed from trademarking it. Read more here.

I don't know if my weekly response met the brief, but I think I learned a lot more by staying with the inquiry. Here is my final workshop challenge that I posted on the Ideas Wall:

KhanNida_CulturalAppropriation

Final thoughts and reflection

I struggled a bit to understand how this week's Workshop Challenge fit with the assignments we have to submit. I would rather have spent the time drafting the contract section of the assignment 1 business plan. I feel I am spending more time on the blog which is not being graded than on the actual assignment. Moving forward I'm planning on tightening up the blog a bit so I'm not spending way too much time on this.  

Thank you for taking the time to read this. 

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Week 2: Business Models, Invoicing and Budget
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Week 4: Business Plans and Communication

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