Tartan & Copyright

[Morris at Heathfield]

Legal advice I cannot give. But gut-feelings are easy and free. If you ask me, I think you're worrying a bit too much about this. Somehow I strongly doubt there are hordes of would-be thieves just waiting for the moment you post up your design to pounce on it, beat you to having it registered and woven, and you missing out on riches and fame.

(Sorry. I wasn't trying to come across as snarky. I really wasn't. But I am relying on a little bit of hyperbole here)...

No worries. I'm the kind of person who doesn't like to leave a shopping cart unattended, even though I know it's highly unlikely that someone else in the store at the same time wants to check out the same exact groceries, and will risk possibly incurring my wrath, when it's a lot easier to just find their own produce.

I'm not terribly worried, I've just been made a bit cautious by certain statements on the Scotweb website.

This article may give some insight into the problem:- http://www.lawdit.co.uk/reading_room...se%20-file.txt.

Thank you. It doesn't really answer my question about how copyright on a tartan is obtained, however.

I've had dealings in the past in order to protect my own designs, and on one occasion prosecute for breach of Design Registration.

Demonstrating that there may be some reason to be cautious. But of course, some people will breach copyright—or design registration—even when it's clearly evident who the owner is.

There is:

Copyright

Intellectual Property Right

Reproduction Rights

Design Registration (in the UK and often incorrectly called Patenting)

Probably other terms too

Some one has by right as the designer, although one has to prove the design date to be in with a chance, others one can assign or sell and the latter one has to purchase.

I'm not terribly familiar with British law, but in the US the phrase "intellectual property" is basically a portmanteau term covering copyrights, trademarks, patents, and trade secrets. I don't recall ever hearing of design registration before.

Well seeing as you live in texas, and that law relates to the uk... Im gonna take a wild guess and say that even though the law exists it may not be applicable to you...

Not applicable to me directly, but should I decide at a future date to commission a length of cloth in a tartan I designed, chances are the weaver would be located in the United Kingdom, and I'm guessing the weaver would only be subject to UK law, whatever that may be. Which is kind of what I'm trying to figure out. But maybe I should just do my own research first, or ask a paralegal to do it for me.

The scottish register of tartans act mentions that a woven sample MAY be sent with the application which is probably where the information you have got corrupted from....

Nope, I'm referring to statements on the Scotweb website, for example here and here.

EDIT: Or did you mean maybe the Scotweb folks might have misunderstood the Scottish Register of Tartans Act?

The simplest thing I can tell you, at least as far as US law is concerned, is that the question of copyright boils down to what you can prove in a court of law should someone challenge you or you should challenge someone else over the question of intellectual property rights.

Basically, as soon as you design a thing, you have the copyright. The question is can you prove it if you have to?

...Posting an image of it here on the forum also creates a record. ...

And, to answer your more specific question, no, you don't have to have the tartan woven into cloth in order to establish copyright of your design. ...

Thank you. That's completely in line with my understanding of how copyright law works, at least in the US, which is why I find the statements on the Scotweb website so puzzling. Perhaps I need to ask Nick what's up.

Ah well, I suppose that, even if things turn out to be according to my understanding of Scotweb website, the worst that could happen is that someone else would get the credit and my Scotweb points. I just hope they aren't allowed to change the tartan's name.