Eunika Janus

On an overcast day in Sydney, a group of design students sit in a class room, awaiting a guest lecturer to talk to them about IP Australia and the services it provides. In all honesty, the vibe was quite negative as they were all expecting the next two hours of their lives, to be taken up by being talked to in a boring fashion, with the type of presentation that would put you on the verge of snoring in class.

But oh were we wrong....

A young lady, with bouncy blonde hair, a humble smile, and an excellent taste in fashion,  entered the room and introduced herseld as Eunika Janus! She then began one of the most interesting and relevant lectures ive ever listened to in my life.

 

Who is Eunkia?

Eunkia Janus is the Marketting Manager of NSW for IP Australia. She has worked with many designers, and has quite alot of contacts within the fashion industry. She has degrees in several fields, and informed us that she is taking a night class in fashion design.

What is IP?

IP Australia stands for Intellectual Property Australia and is all about protecting your ideas, designs, products and creativity. IP is put in place for a number of reasons; to stop people copying your work, the make sure you yourself are not copying someone elses work, and to make money.

 

"We receive and process patent, trade mark, designs and plant breeder's rights applications, conduct hearings and decide on disputed matters relating to granting or refusing Australian IP rights.

Our customers are individuals and businesses in Australia and overseas.

We maintain the registers of patents, designs, trade marks and plant breeder's rights and regularly produce journals detailing new applications and registrations. "

There are 4 types of IP: Patents, Trade marks, Copyright and Registered Designs.

Patents: ~ Function

Patents protects the way something works. For example if you've come up with a fabric that is new and functions like no toher fabric, you need to protect this so no one can steal this idea. They are quite expensive to get, however if you invent something new, they are the best form of IP to protect them.

Registered Design ~ Appearance

RD protects the appearance of something. For example Apple has lots of patents for the way their iphones and ipads work, but they also have RD for the way they look and appear. Registered Designs last for 5 years. You can renew your RD for another 5 years, but after the 10 years, it ends.

Copyright ~ Text, art, music, etc

Copyright is the IP form to protect artistic works, musical works, art works, designs, etc. You dont have to be high end to be protected. If you came up with a 10 bar riff on the piano and want to protect it, you can with copyright so this is yours and only yours.

Trademark ~ Brands

Trademark protects brands. It was last for 10 years, and when it runs out, if you keep renewing it, it can last forever. Trademarks can protect a word, name, slogan, logo, shape, colour, and packaging. For example, Tiffany's has protected the aqua colour that appears on their boxes.

Who is this relevant to?  

Protecting your intellectual property is incredibly relevant if you are of the creative or performing arts fields, fashion, visual fine arts, costume, music composition, film, illustration, drama etc. It is relevant if you are in any field. Names, logos, ideas, thoughts, brands, ANYTHING you think is worth protecting, then the service is available.

How much will it cost me to register a name on IP Australia?

 Over $100. This may seem a lot just for a name, but when you think of the money you might have to pay if you dont register your name, and it turns out someone else has registered that name, it seems worth it!

 

Work in the Fashion Industry

 IP Australia works with Australian citizens and the protection of their intellectual property. It is crucial for fashion designers and companies to protect their work. If they dont they could either be copied and ripped off, or be stealing someone elses work without knowing it.

There are many examples of IP gone wrong. Where brands havent protected themselves and gone under.

Colette Accessories was challened by Collette Dinnigan, becuase the cheaper accessory brands name was too similar to CD's name and CD's customers may get confused and associate this new, mid price range brand with CD's high end fashions.

 

Peter Morrissey had to buy his own name back from the people he sold his company and company name to in order to use it again.

Tsubo (US brand) wrote to Tsubi because the name was too similar. Tsubo was registered in Australia and therefore they have the rights to that name and anything very similar. Tsubi had to rebrand costing them approx. $1million and change their name to Ksubi all around the world.

 

MAKE IT ORIGINAL

Eunika Janus advised, that if we do one thing, make sure we are original and work completely from scratch. That way nothing we do will be copying or breaching IP laws. Make things different and unique. Like Romance was Born or Juicy Couture for example.