What is copyright and what can it protect?
Copyright is one of the main areas of intellectual property activity in which authors and creators obtain, for a limited time, certain exclusive rights over the reproduction of their works as set out in Copyright Act 1968 (Cth) ("the Act").
Copyright law in Australia protects a wide range of creative efforts including literary works, dramatic works, artistic works including sculptures, paintings and photographs, musical works, films, sound recordings, television and sound broadcasts, published editions of works and computer programs.

How do I obtain copyright protection for my works?
Whilst there are intricacies involved in the assessment of whether copyright subsists in a work, generally copyright will subsist in a work if it is original and first published in Australia or one of many overseas convention countries. There is no requirement to register your interest in copyright in Australia. If certain acts have been done, or certain criteria satisfied, copyright will automatically subsist and will be generally owned by you, the author, as of the date the work was first published.

Notwithstanding the automatic accrual of rights, certain acts done at the time of publication can be of considerable advantage. A © symbol, if placed on the works along with your name and the year of first publication can be quite useful in terms of reducing the burden placed on you when it comes to proving authorship. If this is done properly there are presumptions that can be relied on which could save you considerable money in legal fees should you ever wish to assert your rights in a Court.

What will copyright protection mean for me?
Copyright protection, once it is established to subsist, affords you certain exclusive rights. For example, the right to reproduce a literary work, or the right to perform a dramatic work in public. The particular rights an author or creator is entitled to will depend largely on the type of work in question.

Copyright in an artistic work will have different exclusive rights associated to that of a literary work or a sound recording. If someone other than you (or your authorised representative) does anything which falls within any of your exclusive rights then this would amount to an infringement of your copyright and remedies may be available to address this infringement including injunctions and damages.

How long will copyright last for?
The term of protection afforded to most authors has generally increased by 20 years to "life of the author plus 70 years" as a result of implementation of the Free Trade Agreement with the USA on 1 January 2005. However not all copyrighted works are dependant on the life of the author, for instance, in the case of broadcasts and sound recordings, the term of protection is now 70 years from when they were first published or recorded.

So I have copyright in my works, what can I do with it?
Once you have established ownership in copyright you can do a number of things with it. First of all you can assign or sell it. Alternatively, you can licence your copyright in the works to third parties. Ultimately, in most cases of licensing, you remain the owner of the copyright and you may be able to exercise a degree of control over the licensees.

If you are licensing your copyright, then your exclusive rights might be divided up in any number of ways including geographically, temporally, or between different parties. Licensing and assignment allow for increased opportunities to commercially exploit the works that may not otherwise be available to you as an author.

I have found a manufacturer that is selling a chair that I had drawn up as a design concept, without my permission, what can I do?
Firstly you probably do have copyright in the drawing as it will most likely qualify as an artistic work and further, one of the exclusive rights associated with artistic works is the right to reproduce the work in 3 dimensions. It follows then that if you find that someone has made a chair from your drawing without your permission, this is more than likely to be copyright infringement, subject to what is stated below.

If I can prevent others from reproducing the works in 3 dimensions why would I need design protection if I have copyright in the drawing?
Copyright is appropriate for those cases where the is no intention of mass marketing the design embodied in the artistic work. If however you authorise the mass production of your design in 3 dimensions, you lose, in effect, your ability to claim for copyright infringement. Competitors and other manufacturers would then be at liberty to copy your design without fear of legal action. It is therefore very important to obtain registered design protection for designs in which you anticipate will enter the mass market.

I have designed a new logo for a T-Shirt, does that mean I have to get a registered design if I want lots of them made up?
No, flat 2 dimensional images applied to the surface of an object such as a t-shirt, or indeed, a mug or a calendar will not affect your copyright in the 2 dimensional image in any way. Further, the unauthorised reproduction of the t-shirt bearing your copyright works would infringe your copyright.