| There exists a legal gulf separating copyright from industrial design in that these laws appear to be protecting different kinds of subject matter. While copyright law protects pure artistic works such as paintings and sculptures, design law purports to protect artistic works that are industrially applied to mass-produced goods. Copyright law refuses to protect designs that are applied to mass-produced goods and this is the line separating copyright from design. The normative assumption remains that a sui generis design law effectively protects all designs. This thesis aims to establish that in many cases copyright and design protect similar subject matter and, more importantly, challenges the notion that a piece of art must lose the status of a work, and the designer the status of an author merely because the artistic work has been industrially applied. |
