Out-Law / Your Daily Need-To-Know

Government to revisit timing of extension to copyright term for industrially produced artistic works

28 Jul 2015, 4:55 pm

The UK government has revoked legislation which would have given effect to the extension of copyright protection available to designers of artistic works made by industrial process.

The revocation follows a legal challenge brought against the reforms, the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) has said.

The government previously legislated in the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act to provide designers of artistic works made by industrial process with copyright protection for those works for the duration of their life plus 70 years after they die. Currently, the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act caps the length of time that copyright applies to industrially-produced artistic designs at 25 years from the end of the year those works are first marketed where more than 50 copies of such works are made.

A commencement order made by the government in March this year would have meant that the reforms would have had effect from 6 April 2020, representing a transitional period of five years to enable businesses to prepare for the changes. The government had considered shorter transitional periods (74-page / 1.12MB PDF) of six months and three years respectively for giving effect to the changes, but said the five year delay was the best option for balancing the interests of rights holders with businesses making, importing or selling unlicensed copies.

According to the government's final policy paper on the reforms, designers that had previously lost copyright protection for their industrially-produced artistic works after 25 years would be able to require prospective users of new copies of those works to obtain a licence from 6 April 2020. However, existing copies of the previously out-of-copyright works would be able to be traded freely by others after that date and holders of such copies would have no time limit forced upon them to sell them off.

The IPO said it would consult on "revised transitional arrangements" in light of the legal challenge it had received.

"Having considered the matter carefully, the government has revoked the Commencement Order and will not continue with the current transitional arrangements," the IPO said in its statement. "The government will launch a fresh consultation on revised transitional arrangements, including the date for implementing the repeal."