Recently AIGA Los Angeles held a Shop Talk called “How NOT to get sued and NOT to get screwed� with Intellectual Property Attorney Michelle Katz (www.Mkatzlaw.com) , moderated by Rob Bynder. Katz, who previously has worked at several major entertainment studios including Disney, Paramount and Universal, but is now in private practice, took us through the basics of what is copyright and how to actually register for one. Personally, I am quite spoiled because I have had the pleasure of having Michelle as a guest lecturer in my various business classes at Art Center, where she is the college’s IP attorney, CalArts and Otis. She’s enthusiastic and a great presenter who makes this seemingly dry subject matter both accessible and entertaining. You’ve got to appreciate a person who loves what she does and is very very good at it!

WHAT IS COPYRIGHT?
Here’s the soundbyte: our country’s founders loved inventors and artists so they gave us copyright as a civil liberty to recognize our ownership of our creative work. When you make something, you are the author and owner of that work with a variety of rights and privileges which you control. And this is true until you decide to transfer any and/or all of those rights and privileges in a written agreement to someone else. The official governmental recognition of author/ownership is copyright or patent (in the case of inventions of useful items). You want to register for a copyright for your work in case someone else uses or copies or makes a similar (derivative) of your work without your permission or proper compensation to you. The sooner you register a work after it is created and before it is made public, the more complete the benefits and compensation you will receive for any misuse of your work. However, you can register your copyright at any point. All it takes is filling out a form that you can download at www.copyright.gov and mailing it in along with a check for $45. Pretty simple. Big benefits.

Admittedly, there are more details for you to review and consider, like how long copyright lasts and an explanation of those privileges, etc. You might want to download AIGA National’s informative work on Intellectual Property called Guide to Copyright for a more complete discussion of the topic.

DESIGN + COPYRIGHT?
OK, so maybe this idea of copyrighting your work sounds great, but kind of unclear as to why you should do it. As a graphic designer, there’s no doubt that much of your work is going to be commissioned by clients. You design to serve their needs and work within parameters set by them in terms of exact deliverables and budget. However, you need to understand that even though your client pays you to do the work, you are still the owner of the copyright in the work, and therefore control the copyright for the work UNTIL you transfer it over to your client. Now of course, you will transfer usage rights to the client based upon the type of project and client you are dealing with. For example, when you design an identity for a client, you’ll need to transfer unlimited usage rights to them because they need full access and rights to use that logo wherever and whenever. If you design a book jacket complete with an illustration created by you, you’ll want to transfer limited usage so that the client can only use the work as a book cover and in the advertising and promotion of that book. This means that if they decide to create a film or a T-shirt or another book, the client can’t use that work again without coming back to you for permission. Obviously more use beyond the original agreement would mean more money for you as the creator. It’s only fair.

If you transfer all rights, then the client may register and holds the copyright. If you are only allowing limited use, then you register and hold the copyright, and essentially are licensing the use of the work. Be aware that if you create work under a Work For Hire Agreement, it means that the client owns all work product and there is an automatic transfer of rights. In this case, the client holds the copyright.

One of the things I see more and more of are designers wanting to author and develop their own work as a product, independent of a commissioning client. (Look at LA-based designer/illustrator Stefan G. Bucher’s Daily Monsters for an example of this in action.) In this instance it is very important that the designer registers copyright in order to protect their work. In a digital world it is so easy to see work and copy it, steal it right off a website, and use it verbatim. In taking the time to register, and by the way you can gang up a bunch of project created in the same timeframe even if they are actually unrelated pieces, you make the first step to claiming what is yours. In addition, you don’t need to be an American citizen to register copyright here. I think it’s time for us as a discipline to take a look at this issue and negotiate with our clients in an informed way.

WANT TO KNOW MORE?
Tad Crawford, the attorney and Allworth Press publisher of great books about business for creative people, has a good article about copyright and licensing agreements. The illustrators, in general, are way ahead of us graphic designers on the issue of copyrights and understanding the necessity to protect creative work. You can read an excellent article “Controlling Your Intellectual Property� written by Cynthia Turner and Brad Holland. Or you can listen to Steve Heller interview Brad Holland in this Core77 podcast. For an explanation of Work For Hire, please review this article by attorney Frank Martinez.