What is Intellectual Property?

Intellectual Property, or IP, is something that many people have very little or no idea what it means, as a creative it is something very important to be aware of to protect your work. IP is the umbrella term given to copyright, trademarks, patents and design rights, categories in which they have similarities in their nature and legal protection. The exclusive rights given to owners of IP means that no one else has claim to their ideas or work and can also benefit them financially. Unlike with the other categories, in most cases copyright does not need to be registered; it is automatically given to the ‘author’ of the work, the author being the person who created the protected work. Copyright literally means ‘the right to control copying’; the ‘author’ can manage the rights to copy, distribute and adapt the work up until it enters the public domain, which in most countries is the lifetime of the ‘author’ plus 70 years. Often the employer owns the copyright of work created by employees, however, this will be stated in a contract between the two. Copyright owners can license, permanently transfer or assign their exclusive rights to others; unauthorized use of works covered by copyright law is called copyright infringement or violation and is illegal.

A few common instances where IP may have an effect on you are as follows:

Something which relates to a lot of us nowadays is using a website in aid of promotion, to protect original work the universal copyright symbol © together with the owners name and date should be contained on the site. However, if you have contracted someone to build your site they will retain the copyright unless otherwise stated. If you are setting up a new business there are certain protocols you should follow, for example, if you talk to anyone, including investors or a partner, about anything to do with a new product ensure that they sign a Non-Disclosure agreement beforehand so that no one else can steal the idea or disclose the information to others. To protect it from others using it, your business name and brand should be registered as a trademark. If you are a designer of sort and believe you have invented something new you can check whether your idea is already in existence. If it happens that your product is unique in its appearance it is advised to apply for design registration to protect such things; if it is the methods and processes that make things work that are new it should be patented. It is a good idea to be familiar with these procedures, as you could end up losing all rights to something that you in fact created.

For more information visit: www.ipo.gov.uk

'Street' Art?

There is a lot of controversy surrounding art nowadays, as more frequently we are seeing exhibitions in galleries containing artwork that many do not consider to be ‘art’. For instance, the street artist Banksy has recently opened an exhibition at the Andipa Gallery, London; the difference between supposed exhibition pieces and street art being that a lot of art is made to last and to be enjoyed but street art has a short life span, as it is illegal. For many street artists, the movement started out as a joke but talented artists with strong political views got involved. Banksy's work embraces satirical social and political issues, taking the form of murals, sculpture and installation.

As with other street artists, Banksy would have to leave the site quickly so as to not get caught. Through filming ‘Exit Through The Gift Shop’ (2010) he was able to have someone return with a camera and ask the public’s opinion on his art, a lot of the feedback was positive. In Banksy’s first exhibition Barely Legal in LA (2006), he forced street art into the spotlight by putting a camouflaged elephant into his exhibition and collectors rushed to get in on it. Through perceived power, gained by the power of the repetition building up hype around it, street art has made its way into collections worldwide; it is socially a fascinating thing to observe what people buy into.

This is not the first time we have seen artists push at the ‘boundaries’ that seem to be in place within art; Marcel Duchamp being notorious for purchasing everyday objects, sometimes combining them into unique constructions, and announcing them as art that became to be known as the ready-mades. Ready-made artists took items that were not what would be called traditional exhibition pieces and made them so, even though they had not created them or in other cases just made direct copies of them. It is the idea of recycling everyday objects, taking them out of their original context and introducing them to a new environment, that intrigued Duchamp and so many other artists after him; the items are looked at with a different perspective so given a new meaning. This has been the cause of many disagreements between critics for years, questioning whether it can be classed as art or not.

The perceived connotations of a piece of artwork can change so it makes a difference if it is placed into another context. Artwork can be bought to a different audience so it can be seen in a new light, whereas it may have been lost if this had not happened. This has always been the case but it takes some time for people to adjust to new ideas and to look with an open mind at things that do not lie within their comfort zone. People expect artists to abide by the rules, but essentially by calling yourself an artist surely there aren’t any rules to break.

'Fountain', Duchamp, 1913

'One Nation Under CCTV', Banksy, 2008

Banksy's exhibition at the Andipa Gallery, London is open from 9th June - 9th July 2011: www.andipa.com/Exhibitions/Banksy-War-Boutique.php

For a firsthand insight into the world of street art I would thoroughly recommend watching ‘Exit Through The Gift Shop’: www.imdb.com/title/tt1587707/