How to Protect Your Creative Design -A Study on the Intellectual Property for Designers focused on Car Design-

In the Knowledge Economy age, creativity and innovation are often the basis for economic prosperity, the health of a culture and community, and the sustainable future of the world. Innovative designs are crucial for the economic and cultural prosperity. To enhance the social benefits of designs, it is imperative to legally protect designs. Many intellectual property tools can be used to protect a design, and designers need to choose the best tools based on the characteristics of the design and the type of protection needed. Specifically, copyrights provide convenient and automatic protection but they are limited to protecting only ‘expressions.’ To protect design ideas to the fullest, the designer needs to obtain either design patents or utility patents. Under the current patent law, design patents are limited to the ornamental features of a design that are unrelated to the functions. Utility patents can secure broad and stringent protection of ideas or designs but they are very expensive and time-consuming to obtain. Considering these unique features of each legal tools, designers have to choose the most efficient method of protection based on a cost-benefit analysis.