Trademarks and open design.
Protecting designs and intellectual property · Technical principles
Revision notes
Trademarks and logos
• Trademarks give legal protection for brand identity and facilitate marketing. A recognisable combination of words, sounds, colours and logos is important for companies.
• A logo is a graphical symbol; it needs to be instantly identifiable and unique in order to stand out.
• A trademark may incorporate graphics, but can be a word or phrase such as ‘dual cyclone’.
• Trademarks are registered by making an application and paying a fee to the IPO.
• Trademarks need to be renewed every ten years.
• The ® symbol is used to warn others that it is a protected trademark.
Exam tip
Many products encompass all the four main types of IPR, so use a specific product example that you are familiar with, such as the Bic® Atlantis® pens in Figure 24.4 to illustrate how designers can protect their work from being copied.
• Patent: incorporates licensed Laszlo Biro ball ink delivery system.
• Registered design: the ‘S’ curve, barrel shape and other aesthetic features.
• Trademark: the Bic® and Atlantis® names are both registered.
• Copyright: all text on the packaging, such as safety instructions.
Open design
• Open design is a communal, altruistic approach to design that is intended to realise products and systems for the common good of society, rather than for financial reward.
• It rejects use of IPR, and encourages collaboration and sharing.
• Many initiatives are internet based and involve free open source software (FOSS).
• 3D printing is an example of sharing facilitated by universal file formats (e.g. DXF and STL). RepRap Prusa i3 is a 3D printer that can be made from freely available 3D parts files.
• A creative commons licence (a public copyright licence that enables free distribution of an otherwise copyrighted work) is used to maintain an originator’s rights, but allow development.
Examples of open design
• Practical Action – an organisation promoting ‘technology justice’ to challenge poverty in developing countries, by producing freely copiable designs for life-improving projects such as water pumping and purification systems, ploughs and aerial ropeways (Figure 24.5).
• Fairphone – an example of an open source software-based, modular, easily upgraded and repaired mobile phone challenging the current trend to discard mobile phones every couple of years.
• 1950s shipping container patents were leased to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) free of royalties, facilitating current worldwide freight transport.
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