Copyright

This area of law protects intellectual property and does not have to be registered. The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 protects literary, dramatic, artistic work, music, TV, cable or radio broadcasts, film, sound recordings and page layouts.

To protect your copyright, it must satisfy the following tests:

• It is original

• Some work must have been put into it by the copyright claimant

Copyright does not protect slogans, facts, news, ideas or information, but it does offer protection in the way the above are expressed. For example; it is a breach of copyright to continuously take facts from another person’s work. The spoken word is also afforded protection.

Images are also subject to copyright law. You cannot publish a picture without permission from the copyright holder.