Can Artists Protect Their Intellectual Property?

To an artist, their art and portfolio is their life and business.

If anything ever happened to an artist’s portfolio and existing work they would be devastated so insuring your art is highly important.

But what if someone takes your art and uses it without your permission?

If you have an online portfolio, it can be easy for people to take your art, drawings and digital images and use them as their own.

For example if somebody used an art image for the cover of a book, a background on their website or even re-selling prints of somebody else’s work without the artists permission this could be an infringement matter.

As an artist you need to protect your images. Images and art that  have been used without authority and are protected can mean that the artist is entitled to bring the case to deliberation and are often entitled to a share of profits or a one off settlement amount.

So do artists value their work enough to protect it?

Artist should not under appreciate the worth of the art. Protecting your work means that there is something you can do when it comes to theft of your images.

Most artists do not value their work enough to enforce copyrights and protect their art and more often that not, artists simply see somebody else using their images as flattering and complimentary.

But ask yourself this:

If someone stole a painting off of your wall at home, would you take it as a compliment that you had good taste in art or would you see it as theft and call the police?

Experienced IP lawyers and solicitors are available to talk to about all areas of intellectual property including protection for artists and should be able to advise you of what you can and can’t do.

As advice to other artists, do not devalue the worth of your art by not protecting it – it’s not worth the risk!

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