Ripped Off and Replicated

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Ripped Off and Replicated

A plain‑English guide for Australian designers

This is exactly the gap DesignWise Legal, powered by Sharon Givoni Consulting, is designed to fill. It exists to give designers clear, practical tools – in plain language – so you can understand what rights you have, where the gaps are, and what steps you can realistically take when someone gets a bit too “inspired” by your work.

For designers, replicas don’t all look the same. Sometimes it is a chair or lamp that mirrors your silhouette, proportions and overall “feel” but appears under a completely different label. Sometimes it is fabric, wallpaper or surface pattern where the motifs, colour blocking or layout echo your originals a little too closely. It may be jewellery, accessories or fashion pieces that lift distinctive elements of your designs, or a whole brand aesthetic that feels like your work with the serial numbers filed off. Often the most frustrating are the “inspired by” versions – pieces that sit just on the edge of being confusingly similar, close enough that you recognise them instantly, but crafted to look just different enough to make you doubt yourself.

Legally, copying the appearance of a product is not automatically unlawful in Australia. The law does not ban “copying” in the everyday sense. What matters is which intellectual property rights you hold – copyright, registered designs, trade marks, and sometimes consumer-law tools like misleading or deceptive conduct – and whether the copier has crossed the legal line for those specific rights. That is why two designers can both feel equally ripped off, yet only one has a strong, enforceable case: it comes down to what has been protected, when, and how.

One of the trickiest parts for designers is the awkward dance between copyright and design registration. In Australia, copyright protects “artistic works” – your sketches, illustrations, patterns and certain types of three-dimensional work – and it usually lasts for many decades. Design registration, on the other hand, protects the overall visual appearance of a product: its shape, configuration, pattern or ornamentation. A registered design can give you up to ten years of exclusive rights, but only if you apply in time and follow the rules. Once a design has been industrially applied and is registered or registrable, copyright “steps back” for mass-produced items, and the design system takes over. That is why strategy is so important for product designers, fashion labels and homewares brands: the way you launch, what you show, and when you file can completely change what you can enforce later.

All of this helps explain why replicas are so hard to stamp out, even when you try to do everything “right”. Design rights are time-limited and don’t arise automatically – you have to register them. Enforcement costs money and energy: letters, negotiations and, in a few cases, litigation. Copycats might also be overseas, operating in markets where Australian rights are harder to use. On top of that, Australian law is surprisingly tolerant of lookalikes. Products are allowed to look similar, provided consumers are not misled about origin and the copier avoids using your brand, trade mark or other sign that suggests a direct connection. That is why you see shelves, feeds and marketplaces full of pieces that scream “inspired by” to insiders, yet sit on the safe side of the legal line.

Even so, designers are not powerless. The biggest shift comes when you start treating IP as part of your design process, not just emergency first-aid. That can mean thinking early about what to register and in which markets, keeping clear dated records of sketches and prototypes, using written agreements and NDAs when you share unreleased work, and actually registering trade marks for your brand names and key logos. Then, if a replica does show up, you have a toolkit you can reach for: sometimes it will be a design registration, sometimes trade mark or consumer-law arguments around misleading branding, sometimes copyright or confidential information, and sometimes a commercial negotiation backed by the fact that you have your paperwork and rights in order.

This is the space where DesignWise Legal is meant to sit for you. It is designed for creatives and designers who need legal clarity without dense legalese. Through templates, guides and bite-sized explainers, it helps you understand which rights you actually have, decide what is worth registering and when, and approach copycats in a way that is proportionate and strategic rather than reactive. The aim is not to turn you into a lawyer, but to give you enough structure and language so that when you do need help, you know what to ask for and where your leverage may be.

Ultimately, the goal is simple: to give designers a clearer legal backbone behind their creativity, so you spend more time making good work and less time firefighting when someone tries to ride on your coat-tails.

Please note the above article is general in nature and does not constitute legal advice.

Please email us info@iplegal.com.au if you need legal advice about your brand or another legal matter in this area generally.