SPECIAL FEATURE 1

A Clear and Present Crisis over Intellectual Property Rights

- The three major intellectual property rights are design rights, trademark rights, and copyrights. The ways in which these rights are used have grown more strategic. The rights to a design cannot be protected simply by registering a whole product design. And since intellectual property rights are now obtained in a more strategic way, the risk is steadily increasing that you will infringe on other people’s rights without knowing it if you do not pay proper attention when designing.
It can be said that there are hidden catches related to intellectual property rights in all aspects of design. There is a crisis lurking near you. This article helps you to become more interested in intellectual property rights.

Composition

Chapter One: Was a design pirated by a large company?
- Nakashima Propeller Co., Ltd. vs. Toyo Exterior Co., Ltd.

Chapter Two: Is it true that there is little room left for design?
- There is a difficulty in designing without infringing on other people’s rights

Chapter Three: Copyrights of photographs, illustrations, and graphic designs

Chapter Four: A survey on the opinions of designers who read Nikkei Design, with regard to intellectual property rights

(Takehiko Imai, Kenichiro Ota and Hiroshi Maruo)



SPECIAL FEATURE 2 

The Preceding Survey on Intellectual Property Rights
Using the Japan Patent Office’s “Industrial Property Digital Library (IPDL)” services to make market forecasts

A Discussion with Naoki Sakai on Design Management: Part 6
Shoichiro Iwata: President and CEO, ASKUL Corporation