Dezeen archive:
copying in design
Dezeen archive: following claims that Thomas Heatherwick’s Olympic cauldron design isn’t original, we’ve compiled our top stories about copying in design.
The British designer was accused of copying after proposals by an American firm submitted to London’s Olympic committee in 2007 were published in The Guardian earlier this week, though Heatherwick dismissed the claims as “spurious nonsense”.
Recently it was announced that deliberate copying of a design is to become a criminal offence in the UK and a bill to extend copyright protection on industrial design has already been passed in the country.
Copying has also been prevalent in China, where a Zaha Hadid development in Beijing has been pirated by a Chinese developer in Chongqing.
However, Dutch design collective Droog turned the notion on its head by unveiling its own copies of Chinese objects at a Guangzhou shopping centre.
Legal disputes over copying settled in the past year include Apple’s payout to Swiss railway operator SBB for copying its trademark station clock design and Emeco’s claim that fellow US company Restoration Hardware ripped-off its classic Navy Chair.
Recommended stories
Dezeen archive: copying
UK to criminalise deliberate copying of design
ACID seeks evidence of copying in design
“Copyists are eating away at the creativity of our industry”
Government seeks designers’ views on copyright
Copyright exemption plans for AI are “nothing less than vandalism” say UK architects and designers
“China’s copying days are coming to an end” says Design Shanghai creative director
