Loss of copyright protection

Contributed by Annette Rubinstein and Fitzroy Legal Service and current to 1 September 2005

Copyright protection for an artistic work can be lost in part if the copyright owner allows the artistic work to be applied industrially, and articles to which the artistic work have been applied are offered for sale in Australia (s.77).

An artistic work is applied industrially if it is applied to at least 50 articles. For example, if an artist draws a design for a chair, once 50 chairs are made, and one is offered for sale, other people can make identical chairs without infringing the artist’s copyright in the drawing. This can be a real trap for designers and small-scale manufacturers.

In order to prevent other people applying the artistic work industrially, the copyright owner must register it as a design under the Designs Act 1906 (Cth) before an article to which the design had been applied industrially has been sold. Information concerning design registration is available from IP Australia’s website: www.ipaustralia.gov.au.

The loss of copyright protection does not apply to artistic works applied to the surface of an article (such as printing a pattern on a textile or a drawing on a greeting card).