Intellectual property rights relating to your practice work and your Essay

Intellectual property rights relating to your practice work and your learning contract - Essay Example Interior designing is an emerging field of architecture that is taking the form of immense creativity, fashion statement and financial investments. Due to its rising demand around the world, the interior designs and products are becoming a necessary luxury item in households. Each interior design or product is custom made with unique combination of raw materials to create a new design that is unique, modern and one-of-its-kind. This special report aims to explore various IPRs available when combined can provide comprehensive protection of each interior design and product. To achieve this aim, the report has the objective to explore each type of intellectual property rights, their differences, strengths and weaknesses, protection and management issues. Furthermore, it will explore the world wide protection available to interior designs or products. It will also propose appropriate action to take, to capture, retain and manage a mix of IPR for a particular project or design. It will ex plore how to trace and negotiate rights for IPR held by others. 2 What is an Interior Design / Product? The interior designs or products are the furnishings and fittings for interior decoration purposes. These include audiovisual and presentations, bedrooms, arts, crafts and antiques, bathrooms and washrooms, building elements, decorative materials, dining room, fabrics and soft furnishings, flooring, heating and cooling, interior landscapes, kitchens, leisure and entertainment, lighting, living room furniture, mirrors, frames and clocks, office and outdoor furniture, public seating, shelving and storage, signs and notice boards, speciality and contract furniture, wall and ceiling finishes and window treatments. This list is not exhaustive. 3 Types of Intellectual Property Rights in an Interior Design The basic types of IPRs include Patents, Designs, Trademarks, Service Marks, Copyrights and Related Rights, Trade Secrets, Domain Names, Geographical Indications, Integrated Circuit De signs and Plant Breeder Rights. Each of these types protect one kind of work. For instance, patents protect inventions, processes and discoveries whereas, trademarks protect the brand names, slogans, company name, etc. In order to comprehensively protect an interior design or product, it is important to ensure that every aspect is properly protected through the acquisition and maintenance of the right type of IPR. The unique combination of IPRs to protect an interior design or product includes patents, designs, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets and domain names. Lockwood (2007) enumerated ten leading ways through which the value of a design can be gauged. He postulated that Storage Trek created an interior design that affected positively 5,000 employees however, its value was also maintained through its comprehensive IP protection. Therefore, it assisted Storage Trek to create that design, use it and still able to sell in the market without losing it to any copycat. Ferrill and Tanhehco (2011) also highlighted the benefits of protecting designs. Scott (2011) postulated that