Every Artist or art business today has intellectual property that should be protected. The work involved could be a design or an artwork.
Today with the internet you can easily upload your artwork and share it with people around the globe. But protection of intellectual property is so complicated for them that they bypass that process.
This is the reason why people can easily copy and download the artwork illegally and use it without the artist permission.
Intellectual property does not protect the ideas it only protects the products which are generated from those ideas.
Ergo.
Artist today should be aware of the essential intellectual property protection that would bring them recognition among their peers and would also bring in the financial remuneration brought by selling their work.
There are many ways to protect the artwork you publish or make against use which is not authorized by the artist.
Copyright ensures that picture, paintings and other original work of creativity attain protection from people. Art once completed is automatically provided copyright protection, but thinking that registration is unnecessary is a significant mistake on the part of the artist.
If your artwork is registered, you can claim damages in the court against the infringer. Registration prima facie shows that the artwork is your creation.
Trademark registration gives the right to the owner to stop other people from using the same name or logo given to the artwork.
Hence trademark registration provides complete protection along with copyright registration.
Design registration in India allows registration of creations that are new and original features of the composition. The articles should be in the finished state as they are judged solely by the eye.
Indian patent law states that any process is patentable if the article or artwork is a new composition and has certain inventive steps involved.
Hence any new art technique with specific originality and the ornamental characteristic of the artwork can be patented.
For safeguarding your art, it is recommended to include copyright symbol (©) in every artwork published by the artist on any platform. The symbol warns other users from using your creation illegally.
If anyone uses your artwork without your permission, you should send them to notice to bring down the work promptly and ask them to stop using it further.
Follow these simple steps while sending notice
The artwork is the most valuable property of an artist, and when that property ends up on the product or website of another person without the consent of the owner, they feel helpless and do not confront the person stealing their work.
Hence instead of leaving their work on the table unprotected they should realize the value of their product and register their intellectual property immediately.
Copyright is a suitable option in case of protection of artwork as it provides protection immediately as the artwork is presented in a tangible form.