Intellectual Property

Intellectual property (IP) covers intangible assets: things that have value but cannot be physically touched. A folder of original drawings on a laptop has no physical form, yet it can be worth money, so the law treats it as property belonging to the person who created it.

IP law protects different kinds of work. Creative works are things like artwork, music, video and writing. Brand assets are the signs that tell customers where a product or service comes from, such as a company name or logo. Inventions are new products or processes that solve a problem in a way nobody has before. Three main types of protection cover them.

The three main types

Why IP legislation exists

IP legislation gives creators control over how their material is used. Without it, anyone could take a photographer's picture or a band's recording and sell it, and the person who did the work would get nothing. The law helps prevent copying without permission, so the creator decides who can use the work and on what terms.

It also lets creators be rewarded for their creative effort. Because the work belongs to them, they can agree a fee or a licence, and that income lets them carry on making new things. Brands gain too: a trademark stops a rival cashing in on a name someone else built up.

What this means for media producers

A media producer must follow current IP law whenever they use someone else's work, including photographs, music, footage, logos and designs in a magazine, game, website or video. Finding out who owns an asset and getting the owner's agreement is part of planning a product, because using protected material without it can lead to legal and financial consequences.

Copyright is the legal right that gives a creator control over how their work is used. It lets them choose who may copy, share or sell their material, and it lets them stop anyone who copies it without permission. Copyright protects original creative works. These can be music, video, graphics, layouts and designs — such as a children's picture book, a recorded podcast episode, a set of icons or the layout of a leaflet page.

Protection happens automatically

A work does not need to be registered to be protected. Copyright applies as soon as the work is produced. Because of this, a creator may need evidence of when the work was first made, such as dated drafts or saved files, so they can show that someone else copied it later.

A copyright notice helps to show who owns a work. It normally shows the © mark, the year the piece was made or released, and the name of the creator or the organisation that owns the rights. It can also make clear that the item is protected, state when protection runs out and give contact details for anyone asking to reuse it. For example, a photographer printing a picture for a local exhibition can put that notice on the back of the mount, making it clear who made the picture and who should be asked before it is copied.

How long copyright lasts

For a film, the period is measured from the death of the last surviving member of that team, because more than one person can own rights in the same film. For a transmission, the period is measured from the first time it was sent out, rather than from a death.

A trademark is a sign that identifies a product or service and shows where it comes from. Copyright does not protect names, titles or slogans because they are too short or too simple to count as creative works, so trademark law may protect them instead.

What trademarks protect

Trademarks protect signs: logos, symbols and slogans. A trademark stops other people and companies using the same sign, or one so similar that customers could be confused about who made a product.

• A logo, such as a swirl of three leaves for a juice brand.
• A title, such as a game called Sky Cabbages.
• A slogan, such as “Brewed Before Breakfast”.
• A character name, such as Captain Bramble.

What can and cannot be trademarked

Most logos are too simple to be copyrighted: a shape, a name and two colours are not artwork. They are normally protected as trademarks instead. A very detailed, complicated logo might also qualify for copyright as a piece of artwork. A film title is normally too brief to be protected by copyright, though trademark protection may still be available. A product name can be a trademark only when it does not simply describe what the product is. “Fizzy Orange Drink” describes what is in the can, so it cannot be trademarked; a made-up name like Zingle can. A colour scheme can be trademarked if it is distinctive, such as a mint-green and cream combination used across a whole range of cereal boxes.

Registering and using trademarks

To get the strongest protection, owners apply to the UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) to add their mark to the official register. This entry has to be renewed. If the owner does not renew it, the mark is recorded as dead and protection ends.

You should not use a trademark in a media product without permission from the trademark holder. For example, a magazine advert that includes a soft drink’s logo would need the owner’s agreement first.

Patents protect inventions: new products, machines or processes. A patent gives the inventor the right to stop others making, using or selling the invention without permission, for up to 20 years. In return, the inventor shares how it works, so patents are a trade-off.

What an invention must be

To get a patent, an invention must be:

• New – it must never have been described publicly anywhere in the world, even in a blog post.
• Inventive – it must solve a problem in a clever, non-obvious way; a small tweak, like a 2 mm thicker phone case, is not enough.
• Something made or used – a device, a substance or an industrial process; an idea alone is not an invention.

A bike lock that texts you when its cable is cut could be patented: it is new, inventive and a real product. Just saying "bike locks should send alerts" protects nothing.

What cannot be patented

These cannot be patented:

• Creative works: books, plays, scripts, music and artwork are protected by copyright instead.
• Medical treatments and diagnosis: you cannot patent treating or diagnosing a patient.
• Scientific theories and discoveries: you cannot patent a discovery.
• The presentation of information: a chart or form layout is not patentable.
• Non-technical software: an app that just stores a shopping list is not patentable.

Software with a technical effect may be patentable: a program that compresses video to save storage does something technical.

Ideas and formats

An idea cannot be protected by copyright or by a patent. Copyright protects the finished expression of an idea, such as the actual script or the recorded song, not the concept behind it. Trying to protect an idea or a whole format is a grey area in law: an idea alone cannot be protected, but formats are made of many separate parts that may be protected.

Individual creative parts of a format can be protected by copyright – for example, an original theme tune or a written rulebook. Whether the overall format can be protected is less certain: it may be possible if its distinctive media components create a whole format, but this is hard to prove. Keep dated records of each part.

To use another person's work in your own media product, you normally need the owner's permission or a licence that covers how you use it. A producer should be able to prove permission was given before publication.

Steps to take

1. Find out who owns the copyright. It may not be the person who posted the asset — a photographer might have sold the rights to a picture library.
2. Contact the owner and ask for permission, explaining exactly how the asset will be used.
3. Negotiate and pay a fee or royalty, or buy a licence that matches that use.
4. Acknowledge the author, creator or owner on the finished work, in the credits or beside the asset.
5. Keep evidence of the permission — emails, signed agreements, licence numbers or receipts — so it can be proved if questioned.

A school eco-club wants a local illustrator's drawing on a poster. They email the illustrator, agree £25 for a run of 200 posters, credit them under the drawing, and save the email and receipt in the project folder.

Royalties, royalty-free and licences

A royalty is a payment made to a creator each time their work is used or sold, so a popular asset keeps earning. Royalty free does not mean free: a one-off licence fee is usually still needed, and once paid the licence may allow repeated use for ever. The watermark on a preview is only removed when that licence is bought, so this must happen before you publish.

Fees depend on how the asset will be used — a clip in a paid advert costs far more than in a school newsletter — so the correct licence must be bought before use, never afterwards.

When permission is refused

An owner may say no, especially if the use is controversial or could damage their brand or reputation. The producer must accept it and buy another asset or create their own. Respecting IP rights means getting permission, paying fees or royalties, crediting creators and keeping records.

If you use someone else's copyrighted work without permission or a licence, you have committed a breach of copyright. It does not matter that you did not mean any harm, or that you credited the creator afterwards: the work is being used without the owner's agreement, so the owner's rights have been infringed.

The consequences for a company

• Forced to stop selling: a court can order the company to take the product off sale until the copied material has been removed. Stock already in shops may have to be recalled, and the packaging or artwork redesigned before it can go back on sale.
• Fined: the company can be ordered to pay a sum of money to the court as a punishment, on top of anything else it owes.
• Prosecuted: a serious case can be taken through the criminal courts, which means the people responsible can end up with a criminal record as well as a penalty.
• Sued for financial loss: the copyright owner can take the company to court to claim back the money they lost — for example the licence fee they would have charged, plus any sales they missed — along with their legal costs.

Worked example

A small games studio called Bright Buoy Games releases a puzzle game with a photographer's picture of a harbour on its start screen. The designer found the picture on a blog and used it without asking. The photographer spots it, proves the photo is hers, and complains. The studio has to pull the game from the app store while new artwork is made, pays the photographer a backdated licence fee and compensation, and covers its own legal bills. A game that was meant to make money has now cost the studio far more than a licence ever would, and the complaints piling up on its social media have put off new customers.

That mix of lost sales, penalties and damage to reputation is why a breach is treated so seriously, and why producers sort out permissions, fees and licences before the work is used — see Using Copyrighted Material Legally.

When you use someone else's image, video or brand, symbols and watermarks give you clues about who owns it and whether you are allowed to use it.

Symbols and what they mean

For example, a photo of a mountain might carry © in its corner. A diagram on a school wiki might show CC. A bakery's logo could have TM beside it, while a well-known soft drink logo might carry ®.

Watermarks

A watermark is a mark laid over an image or video, such as a logo or the word PREVIEW. It is often a sign that the work is licensed but the fee has not yet been paid, so the copy you are looking at is only a taster. Pay for the licence and you are usually sent the clean version, with no mark on it.

Some people still copy watermarked work illegally, for example by cropping the mark off the edge or taking a screenshot. A watermark does not make an image free or safe to use; it is usually a reminder that permission and payment are still outstanding.

Creative Commons (CC) is a set of copyright licences. Each licence gives permission for an asset to be used in particular ways. A CC asset costs nothing to access, but free to download does not mean free to use in any way: the licence still sets rules about what you may do with it.

Every CC licence except CC0 asks you to credit the creator. Depending on the licence, you may be limited in whether you can make money from the asset or change it. The conditions are combined:

• Attribution (BY): you must credit the creator.
• Non-commercial (NC): the asset cannot be used commercially, for example in something you sell.
• Share alike (SA): if you alter the asset, your new version has to use the same licence.
• No derivatives (ND): you cannot alter the asset.

You download a free set of brush textures for digital art. The textures are released under CC BY-NC-SA. You may use them in artwork for a free online gallery as long as you credit the creator. If you change the textures, your changed set must also be shared under CC BY-NC-SA. You cannot sell prints made with the textures.

CC0 (public domain) is different from the other licences: anyone may use the work for any purpose, including selling it or changing it, and no credit to the creator is needed.

Fair dealing is a set of limited exceptions to copyright law. It lets you use someone else's copyrighted work in certain situations without asking for permission, as long as the use is genuinely fair. If your copying would significantly affect the copyright owner, for example by taking away sales, it is not fair dealing.

What the exceptions cover

• Non-commercial research or private study: you can copy a short excerpt to help you learn or investigate a topic, such as a few paragraphs of an online encyclopaedia entry for an assignment. Copying or reposting the whole work goes beyond this.
• Criticism, review or quotation: you can quote parts of a work when you are analysing or judging it, as long as you credit the creator. A board game reviewer might quote one confusing sentence from a rulebook while explaining why it is unclear.
• Reporting current events: a news site can quote a short part of a public speech in a report about a local decision. The exception does not cover photographs, which need permission separately.
• Teaching: a teacher can show or copy extracts for non-commercial instruction, such as projecting a single map from an atlas while explaining coastal erosion.
• Copies for disabled people: if someone cannot read or hear a work because of a disability, an accessible copy can be made for them, such as an easy-read museum leaflet.
• Time shifting: you can record a broadcast to watch or listen to at a more convenient time.
• Parody, caricature or pastiche: you can make a humorous imitation of a work, such as a funny spoof of a famous advert's jingle.

The limit that matters most

Fair dealing does not let you take another person's work and build it into something new that you share widely. Using a wildlife charity's illustration as a character in your own comic fits none of the exceptions, and the charity loses the chance to sell or license that artwork. The use has to fall inside one of the exceptions above, such as a short quotation you have credited.