Lesson video

Hello, thank you for joining me for the lesson today.

My name is Mrs. Conway and I will be guiding you through your learning.

Okay, so today we are going to be looking at design security, and our lesson outcome for today is I can identify the rights and responsibilities of designers and produce my own designs which are compliant with these.

And our keywords are plagiarism, copyright, trademark, patent, and intellectual property.

I'll go through each of these as we go through the lesson.

So first of all, we're going to start with protecting design work.

Designers have to ensure that their work that they produce is entirely their own.

If designers copy another designer's work without permission or without giving them credit for the work, then this is called plagiarism.

And plagiarism can have legal consequences for designers.

It's really important that designers do not copy each other's work.

The reasons for this are to respect creativity, to maintain originality in their own design work, to avoid any legal issues that may arise, such as what I've just mentioned concerning plagiarism, and to preserve their professional reputation.

Let's just do a quick check for understanding on that.

What is plagiarism? Is it A, copying someone else's work without permission or credit, B, collaborating on a group project with proper acknowledgement, or is it C, sharing your own ideas with others? Pause the video here if you'd like to take a moment to think about that.

Okay, and the correct answer was A.

Plagiarism is when you're copying someone else's work without permission or without giving credit to it.

As soon as a new design is complete, it is at risk of being copied by anyone, even the person sitting next to you.

The designer needs to gain intellectual property rights of their design so that no one can copy it.

Intellectual property is a legal right that protects creations such as things like inventions and designs, and it basically means that that idea belongs to the designer who designed it.

Now, there are various different ways that creators can gain intellectual property rights of their designs.

Remember that intellectual property right, protects their work from being copied.

So some of the different ways they can do that then are, copyright laws, you may have heard of copyright.

Trademarks again, you may have heard of those, and also patents again, you may have heard of them before, but you are not quite sure about the differences between them.

So let's have a little look.

Copyright is a law that protects a creator's control over their original work, and copyright protects original creative works such as music, art, and writing.

And copyright is represented by that little C symbol that I'm showing there in the slide.

When a piece of work is protected by copyright, it'll show that little C just to show that this is protected.

You cannot copy it.

Trademarks are slightly different.

Trademarks protect brands and logos, so it's all about what it protects in terms of which one is the right fit for what you are designing.

A brand or a logo often has a symbol below that is then shown that this is protected and cannot be copied.

This is the TM logo and that stands for trademark.

So just a quick check for understanding on that.

What do trademarks protect? Is it A, inventions, B, brands or logos, or C, music, art and writing? Pause the video here just to take a moment to think about that.

How did you get on? It was B, brands or logos.

Trademarks protect brands or logos, and copyright protects music, art and writing.

So the last one, inventions, what does that fall under? That is patents.

So patents protect inventions or new technologies.

And designers can apply for a patent of their design.

A patent is usually submitted to the patent office as a set of drawings or technical details.

If the patented office agrees that it should be patented, this is a new idea.

The patented is given to the designer as their intellectual property.

They then own that for around 20 years.

Once the 20 years is up, that invention is no longer protected and so anyone can use it, make it, sell it, or share it.

That patent runs out and no longer can the designer have intellectual property over that particular design.

They can do all of those things or anyone can do all of those things without the patent holder's permission once that 20 years is up.

Okay, let's just have a little check for understanding on patents then.

How is a patent usually submitted to the patent office? Is it A, a model or prototype of the product, B, a written description of the product, or C, a set of drawings and technical details? Pause the video here just to take a moment to think about that.

Okay, the correct answer is a set of drawings or technical details.

These are sent off to the patent office and by looking at those, they can make a decision whether or not to give that patent, which will give the designer intellectual property over their ideas.

So in exchange for the patent, the designer must make their design public, which sounds a bit confusing because people can't use it, but they're just making it public.

But they can take legal action against anyone who then copies it within that 20 year area of time.

Now, the owner of the patent does, if they would like to have the right to sell it, make it, and allow others to make it use or exchange the design in exchange for royalties such as cash.

That doesn't give others the right to do that.

That patent means that the designer has the choice to do that if they would like to do so.

One of the rules of the patents, of course, is that you cannot patent in something that already exists, which is why it all goes through the patent office.

They hold all the information on all of those products, which means they can make an informed decision of whether or not that patent should be allowed based on their knowledge of whether it already exists.

So there are certain criteria points that must be met for the UK patenting office to agree to actually give a patent for a design or an invention.

These are, as I already mentioned, it must be new.

It mustn't be something that a patent office has already seen, has already been invented.

It must involve an inventive step and it must be capable of being industrially made.

And lastly, it must not have been previously excluded from the patent office, so it must not have already come through in a different format and the patent office went, nope, can't actually do that.

So it needs to be completely new to them.

Now designers have a choice of whether to actually allow users to use their design if it's patented.

So within that 20 years, once the patent has been given to the designer, they have that choice of whether they want to allow others to use it, to sell it, or do whatever they want with it.

They may if they wish, grant permission for either a fee or if they're feeling really generous completely for free to make it freely available to others to use.

Now, one example where somebody did do this was the design of the three-point safety harness or seatbelt that we know quite well as it's what we have in our cars today.

It was actually designed by Nils Bohlin in 1959 for a well-known car company.

Seat belts had already been around for a while, but they were just ones that would usually go straight across the lap.

So just one strap that would go across the lap, not across the body.

So Nils Bohlin came up with the idea for the three-point seatbelt, which was a lot safer.

Bohlin's version of seatbelt according to its patent, was, and I quote, "Effectively, and in a physiologically favourable manner, prevents the body of the strapped person being thrown forward." So by having the strap that goes over the body as well as over the lap, it was stopping that problem of the body being thrown forward.

Previously, the seatbelt just had the one that went over the lap.

It meant that the actual top half of the body would be able to lurch forward, which could cause issues in terms of any kind of medical problems. However, Nils Bohlin actually decided that the patent would be gifted to the car industry so that anyone could use it to ensure cars were as safe as possible.

This was his choice to do this, and he decided not even to sell it, but just to gift it.

He wanted cars to be safe and he felt that everyone had that opportunity or the right to have that opportunity when travelling in a car.

Okay, time for you guys to have a little go.

You are going to complete the chart below to explain what copyrights, trademarks and patents typically protect.

You are going to give an example for each one.

So in the first column, you're going to suggest what they typically protect.

Is it writing or music? Is it a brand or a logo? Is it invention or a design? Then you're going to give an example of that.

You might have to do a little bit of research of examples of this.

Let's see how you get on.

Pause the video here to give this a go.

Okay, how did you get on? So, firstly, copyright.

Copyrights typically protect music, art, or writing.

Now I've given you example here of, for example, a song by a famous artist.

You might have named a specific or a particular song, and that is absolutely fine.

A trademark protects logos and brands.

And again, I've given an example here of a well-known sports brand logo or slogan.

Again, you might have one in your mind that you've used as an example and a quite famous one maybe.

And patents protect the inventions and new technologies.

And I've given the example of what we've just discussed, which was the three-point safety harness by Nils Bohlin.

Okay, don't worry if you've got different answers, that's perfectly normal.

There are lots of different options for the example there.

Right, let's look at how we actually keep products secure then.

So paper products such as tickets and money also need to be kept secure, and typically this is done through the use of things such as holograms or watermarks.

The purpose of holograms and watermarks are to prevent counterfeiting.

And counterfeiting is making fake copies of something to trick people, which things such as tickets and money can be susceptible to.

Holograms and watermarks prevent counterfeiting by being just really hard to reproduce without the correct specialised equipment.

That correct specialised equipment is incredibly expensive and difficult to replicate.

So let's just do a quick check for understanding on that.

Why are holograms and watermarks used? Is it A, to enhance the visual appeal of the product, B, to make the material easier to recycle, or C, to prevent counterfeiting? You can pause the video here just to take a moment to think about that.

Okay, the correct answer was to prevent counterfeiting, when people try to copy or replicate the work.

So let's look at holograms to begin with.

A hologram on British bank notes is a shiny, 3D-like image or pattern.

You've probably seen this before on money and you can see it in the example below.

That 3D image or pattern changes appearance when you tilt the note in different directions, and that is a security feature to help prevent counterfeiting because it is incredibly difficult to replicate that hologram.

Next time you have some money, some notes have a little look on that money and see if you can spot the hologram.

A watermark is slightly different.

A watermark on money is a security feature embedded into the paper of the bank note during its manufacture.

I'm actually showing you an example here of a watermark on a different paper-based product because it isn't just on money the watermarks can be used.

It can be used in anything that needs protecting in any way, such as a ticket for a music festival.

So they can be used in things such as stamps.

You'll also see these on your passport.

So again, next time you've got your passport, have a little look at it and see if you can spot the watermark on it.

They're also sometimes used in certificates and also some very fancy stationary as well.

The example that I've shown you there is in some stationary.

A watermark is a faint, shadowy image or pattern and it usually becomes visible when the note, when the note or the piece of paper, or the product is held up to the light and then you can see it a lot more clearly.

Right, let's just do a quick check for understanding on that.

What is a watermark? Is it A, a faint shadowy image or pattern that becomes visible when the note is held up to the light? Is it B, a printed symbol on a bank note visible under normal lighting conditions, or is it C, a holographic feature that changes appearance when tilted? Pause the video here just to take a moment to think about that.

How did you get on? The correct answer was A.

A watermark is a faint, shadowy image or pattern that becomes a visible when the note is held up to the light.

Well done if you got that right.

So high profile events such as music festivals need to prevent counterfeiting of their tickets due to the popularity.

If you think about how popular some music festivals are, they get it sold out very, very quickly and so counterfeiting will become more popular as people try to get hold of those tickets.

So often tickets will sell quickly and the consumers are really, really tempted to get tickets elsewhere as they're desperate to get tickets to that particular event.

So by adding holograms and watermarks or even more frequently nowadays, photos of the actual ticket holder.

So some of the high profile music festivals we've seen in this country now add a little photograph of the person that actually purchased that ticket onto the ticket.

They can then prevent counterfeit tickets from being sold or used for entrance to events.

And it's really important that we do that.

If counterfeit tickets are sold to an event, this could lead to a possible overcrowding of the event, which could actually ruin the experience if there are too many people at the event.

But even worse, it could actually lead to some dangerous situations such as crowd crushers.

Of course, it can also then lead to lost revenue for the organisers for the event as well.

So the organisers will be trying to prevent counterfeiting as much as possible.

Okay, it's over to you guys now to have a little go at a task.

You're going to imagine that you are tasked with designing a secure ticket for a music festival.

Now you're not actually going to design the ticket.

What I would like you to do instead however, is state what security feature you would include and also describe how your chosen feature prevents counterfeit tickets.

You're also going to answer the following question, what are the potential benefits of using security features like watermarks or holograms on tickets? Now think about your spelling, punctuation and grammar and really think about how you're going to explain your answers to these.

Okay, pause the video to here to have it go.

Alright, how did you get on with that? So the first thing you were asked to do was to state what security feature you would include and describe how your chosen feature prevents counterfeit tickets.

So in my example here I've said I would include a hologram on the ticket.

You may have mentioned a watermark.

That's absolutely fine.

When the ticket is tilted, the hologram would appear to shift or change colour, making it difficult for counterfeiters to replicate using standard methods.

The next part of your task was to answer this question, what are the potential benefits of using security features such as watermarks or holograms on tickets? Okay, the answer that I've given you here is an example.

Security features like watermarks or holograms ensure that only genuine tickets are used reducing counterfeit sales.

This prevents overcrowding at events and also helps to maintain revenue for organisers by ensuring all ticket holders are legitimate.

Compare my answer with yours and see if you've hit the main points that you needed on there.

So let's summarise today's lesson.

We've worked on design security.

If designers copy another designer's work without permission or without giving them credit for the work, then this is called plagiarism.

And designers can use various ways to protect their work from being copied.

If you remember, these are copyright, trademark and patents.

And the type that we use to protect our work will be dependent on what the work is that we are protecting.

Patents protect inventions and new technologies.

We also have to keep paper products secure and paper products such as tickets and money do need to be kept secure.

The use of holograms and watermarks can help to keep paper products secure and also prevent counterfeiting.

Well done on your hard work for today's lesson and I will see you soon.