I went along to a superb session last night on Design Law run by The Designers Institute in Tauranga. If you are a freelance creative/designer/developer/product manager or you are into UX, service design, brand, product, industrial, spatial or architecture this is a must attend gig as it travels to Wellington and Christchurch before the end of March. It’s also worth attending if you find yourself as a client that works with these types of individuals or companies.

James Carnie, principal of Clendons Barristers and Solicitors, and lawyer to DINZ, delivered a really great session on understanding key design laws. Some of this you may know but when it’s James talking you always learn something new. Things such as intellectual property, including patents, trademarks, registered designs, copyright, and digital rights management are all covered. So too is the liability for design works and the importance of contract formation and what should be included in your contracts. For service focused designers, developers, architects, creatives, etc, the commissioning rule is very important to you and this session talks with a lot of factual information and context about how this works under the s21(3) Copyright Act 1994. You need to know this stuff.

Limiting risk, protecting your IP, dealing with clients, and dealing with designers and developers (if you are the client or supplier) may be some dry topics but they are all touched on and the way these sessions are informally structured means you can really get into some detailed discussions and questions that are beneficial.

What’s also impressive is that James presented the new service contracts that have been developed by the Designers Institute specifically for the New Zealand design and development/creative industry. These contracts are free for Institute members and if that doesn’t sound good, you should know that some of New Zealand’s best leading designers (whom themselves have lived through a lot of the good the bad and the ugly) have spent a lot of time working up and poring over these contracts so they combine into a well rounded set of sharp contracts that you can take advantage of. Getting a contract and T&Cs legally drafted could cost you in the vicinity of NZ$2-5K easy and as James mentioned these are current up-to-date assets that have been funded by the Institute for the benefit of all designers in New Zealand. Put these in your resource kit!

Following the first presentation Richard Pemberthy (Pemberthy Insurance) and Harvey Kerr (Auckland Insurance) walked us through liability insurance and what it means for design and related sectors. The guys took us from the one-to-one of liability insurance right through to the key fundamentals quite bluntly (but it’s what you need to hear). On a commercial side (although these sessions are more educational and informative than commercially driven) Pemberthy has partnered with the Designers Institute and created what looks like a comprehensive insurance programme specific to designers, developers, architects, and the like, offered at what appears to be an incredible price.

These sessions are being rolled out around the country so if it’s of interest, do get along. For further details visit: Design Law 2013 Series.

Design Law 2013 by James Carnie