intrex Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 I have a question for those of you that that sell a large quantity of a certain design forging. Have you ever tried to legally protect the design? If you have workers in your shop do you make them sign a contract saying they can't sell designs that your shop makes? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notownkid Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 Legally protection of designs made in your shop sounds like Patenting them. This falls under the heading of Good Luck. The paperwork, research to prove you haven't in fact breached someone else's patent and the needed legal fees make it not a reasonable thing to try to say nothing of the time involved. You would need to make a Huge Number of these units to pay for this. Even say you get a patent it doesn't take a whole lot of changes on a design to make it a different product. Non disclosure agreements with employees are easier to do but again very expensive to enforce when and if you suspect someone has done it. To force employees to agree to limiting their future working possibilities for competing companies is again a possible enforcement problem because of conflicting laws State to State and how much are you able or willing to spend on legal fees? These are all civil actions you pay the freight on all expenses. I no longer have employees and don't make anything that falls into this category but have run into it in the past with others. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 or copyright and copyright is probably more applicable. Unfortunately these "rights" have to be enforced though expensive court cases and in some other countries the concept of "intellectual property" is observed more in the breach. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SJS Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 Non competition clause in their work contract could help, but basically you have to hire people who "seem" honest, and hope that they don't rip off your idea. The problem with blacksmithing is if I can see it, I can replicate it, and anyone who has been in your shop and done it is just that much better equipped to beat them out on their own... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arftist Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 Like Thomas said, copyright is cheaper, more realistic and easier to enforce. (in terms of design) Patents are unbelievably expensive these days. Patent protection lasts 17 years, Copyright 75 years. Patents cost upwards of 20K Copyright costs about $75. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpankySmith Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 Google "art and copyright", it's been several years since I looked at that issue but I remember there are special considerations when you're talking about artistic works, mostly regarding just how original you can claim the work to be, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John McPherson Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 It may interest you to know that there are a certain class of individuals who go around to jewelry, arts & crafts, etc. shows to take pictures of original works. The photos are sold to companies in Asia, who pick thru the pile, deciding which designs to turn into mass merchandise items. Good luck with enforcing any sort of intellectual property rights these days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JNewman Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 This reminds me of something Ries Niemi used to mention on his website. He had a little figure he used to fabricate back in the day that did a bunch of different activities. Over the years he has seen copies of them made in a bunch of different third world countries. Ries had the best line about having done more than Sally Strothers for foreign aid with his design that was copied all over the world . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
intrex Posted February 13, 2015 Author Share Posted February 13, 2015 Hey Guys, Thanks for all of the feedback on how these issues apply to blacksmiths. I currently run a software company and have a pretty lenghty non-complete/disclosure as well as other documents for employees. I have also worked as an expert witness on a software patent case (high paying but probably the worst gig of my life). My plan is to transition into software part time and smithing together at some point. That is still years away but I am always bouncing around ideas of how to get there. With the kind of custom software I make it is nearly impossible for a employee to take a full system and try to implement it on their own to customers. It would also be really easy to prove what they did. Aside from getting all of the tools neccesary to smith it would be pretty easy for an employee to go out on their own and start making identical (or slightly modified) forgings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kubiack Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 I think this is one area where you really have to be better at making them than your compitition. If you make a lot of them you probably have built the tooling, jigs, and techniques that will allow you to make them better quality and in far less time. If that is the case then you can sell them for less than your compitition and still make a good profit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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