Articles
Tag Archives: Protection
Furniture Suppliers Beware! Protecting your designs in Contracts
Sharon Givoni Consulting Arts and design, Copyright, Intellectual Property, Protecting ideas
Beware of hidden traps in trading terms and conditions There is a major industry issue faced by many furniture suppliers. Some larger furniture retailers have snuck some clauses into their trading terms which are disadvantageous to suppliers, particularly when it comes to protecting your designs from being copied. One of these clauses purports to give […]
Avoiding the Gaps in the Copyright/Design Overlap
Sharon Givoni Consulting Arts and design, Copyright, Intellectual Property
Takeaway tips The copyright/design overlap aims to deal with and eliminate dual protection under copyright and design law. Don’t assume your designs are protected by copyright. Consider design registration before you publicly disclose your design. Recently, our firm assisted a client who sold unique handmade jewellery through an online store. He shockingly discovered that another […]
Ensuring your Soft Drink Brands Sparkle not Fizzle
Sharon Givoni Consulting Food Law
This article examines some dos and don’ts when it comes to trade mark protection for beverages considering real life cases concerning brands such as “Cranberry Classic”, “Crantastic”, “Ruby’s Red”, the “NES” family of Nestle trade marks and Boost juice marks. The strongest form of legal protection you can have for your brand in Australia is […]
Avoid having your ideas ripped off: Be proactive not reactive
Sharon Givoni Consulting Protecting ideas
Imagine that you have designed a new fabric pattern. You are getting ready to release it to the market. You know it will be a great seller and need to take steps to ensure it is not copied by a competitor. Understanding how intellectual property laws in this area work is critical for you to […]
When the wet paint is protected by copyright
Sharon Givoni Consulting Street art
Sharon Givoni has recently authored an article on Street Art and Copyright for Lexis Nexis’s Inhouse Counsel newsletter. In this article, Sharon considered the legality surrounding the creation of street art and how copyright subsist in it. She has explored questions such as how does copyright regime apply to street art and should illegal street […]
Lessons From The UGG Boot: Why Protecting Your (Global) Brand Is Paramount
Sharon Givoni Consulting Retail and fashion Law
A little-known fact that most business owners aren’t aware of is that just because a word is a cultural icon, this does not mean they are free for public use as a trade mark. In Australia alone, there have been many cases of iconic words or sayings that have been registered as trade marks, which […]
Chinese Fakes. What can you do about them?
Sharon Givoni Consulting Arts and design, Intellectual Property
One question that Australian IP lawyers often get asked is what you can do to prevent your designs and products from being ripped-off in China. The issues surrounding IP protection are alive and well in China, which is notorious for its culture of copying, with “Naik” (Nike) shoes to “Adidos” (Adidas) tops right through to […]
Copyright and Wrong: A Basic Guide for Designers
Sharon Givoni Consulting Copyright, Intellectual Property
Here we examine what is copyright, how are creative works protected? How not to infringe someone else’s copyright, all with a particular focus on designers. Read more…
Preventing Copycats: Weaving Through the Legals
Sharon Givoni Consulting Arts and design
Imagine you come up with a great new pattern for curtain fabric that strikes a chord with consumers, a window shutter design or a special weave that flies off the shelves. What if you find out someone is copying you? Have you protected your IP? Can you stop them? How? This article considers how you […]
Protecting What’s Special
Sharon Givoni Consulting Protecting ideas
Most of us will have great business ideas from time to time. The challenge is how you can stop others from using them and slavishly copying them …. This article considers the law of confidential information and how you can protect that in Australia. It also considers the importance of registering unique trade marks and […]