Thread: Designs, ethics and copying

What Ballpeen said. We all stand on the shoulders of others. You will find that serious manufacturers will protect their designs and very quickly let you know if you go into commercial production copying their products. Other than that you really don't have to worry and that includes doing half a dozen tables for the pub.
Three main categories of protection are
Artistic copyright - Applies to any creative thing... a song, a novel, a painting, a sculpture or a piece of furniture if it is being presented as art. You just can't copy this stuff and if you want to do something in the 'style' then it has to be notably different, i.e. by 10%
Registered design - This is where a thing is registered as a design. Someone has a very polished look , method, material like a set of cutlery or furniture, glasses, light fittings, pots and pans, shoes, etc. If you go to China and make shoes just like Nike' they will be Nike' knock-offs and they are illegal.
Patent protection - This is where the object is absolutely unique and novel and that novelty represents a breakthrough in the field. This is the most expensive form of protection and it is the sort of cover that some of the lathe chucks carry, or special bowl cutting tools, or if you invented somthing like a pressure cooker or a really good new mouse trap.
None of which you need to worry about. Thats one of the great joys of woodwork. We can all borrow, copy and share willy-nilly and no-one will give a rats until you set up a factory and start to churn out product. And by then you will be very happy to be putting up your own registered designs etc.

Bill, interesting reading from those links, and as you say, very generous with their knowledge. Great to see.

T Len, thanks for sparing us the in depth gobbledigook, and only very lightly scratching the surface of the complex and confusing legal side of this issue. Thankfully just about all of us will never have to go there.