Papercraft templates to sculptures

[wildcheese]

Hi

Hope you can help.

Would i be breaking any copyright laws if i purchased a papercraft template - made the paper scultpure, but then made a mould to create further concrete/wax/resin sculpture versions of the original paper model.

These would be to sell.

Thanks

wildcheese.

[AndyJ]

Hi wildcheese,

We're heading off into slightly uncharted territory. There are two different rights involved here: copyright and design right - probably the unregistered variety.

Clearly as a purchaser you are granted a licence to make and use the paper cutout model as an ornament, but copyright in the design of the template remains with the originator. Under design right, the designer also has legaI protection to prevent his design being copied without authorisation. Here's what section 226(2) of the Copyright Designs and Patents Act says is a right reserved to the designer:

Reproduction of a design by making articles to the design means copying the design so as to produce articles exactly or substantially to that design ...

Turning back to copyright law, I find it hard to say categorically that the finished model is a protected work of artistic craftsmanship or a sculpture, because you are the person who will have made the 3-D version, not the manufacturer, even though they provided the raw materials. However bearing in mind that copyright will exist in the template, a claimant could probably bring a claim under section 17(3) which forbids the making of a 3-D version of a 2-D work. Since that would clearly be the case with making a mould and then subsequently, producng new positive copies, such a claim is likely to be successful.

On this basis I think that what you propose would almost definitely infringe design right, and might very well also amount to copyright infringement as well, if you do this without permission.

[wildcheese]

Thank you for your in-depth and informative reply.

Very clear.

Thank you.