What are the best legal methods to protect one&#39;s jewelry designs?
<p>As handcrafted jewelry producers, our cooperative has created literally thousands
of  original jewelry designs over the past 30 + years. What would be the most effective
and practical ways to protect our authorship rights and to defend ourselves
from disrespectful commercial predators?</p>

<p>A work of art is protected by copyright, under US copyright law – see <a href="https://www.copyright.gov/comp3/chap900/ch900-visual-art.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">here</a> esp. §908.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Jewelry designs are typically protected under the U.S. copyright law
as sculptural works, although in rare cases they may be protected as
pictorial works. This Section discusses certain issues that commonly
arise in connection with such works.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>(followed by a discussion of what jewelry is). The item must be &quot;sufficiently creative or
expressive&quot;, which we will take to be self-evidently true.</p>

<p>As <a href="https://law.stackexchange.com/a/77466/17500">the answer by user6726</a> says such works are automatically protected by US copyright. It would be possible to register them with the copyright office. This is required before bringing a suit for infringement, and if done in advance, preserves the right to statutory damages under <a href="https://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap5.html#504" rel="nofollow noreferrer">17 USC 504</a>. Statutory damages can be anywhere from $750 to $30,000 per work infringed, or up to $150,000 per work for wilful infringement, as the court may think just. In addition, injunctions against continued infringement are available under 17 USC 502. Under 17 USC 503 allegedly infringing copies and &quot;plates, molds, matrices, masters, tapes, film negatives, or other articles by means of which such copies or phonorecords may be reproduced;&quot; may be impounded. and if the plaintiff wins,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>the court may order the destruction or other reasonable disposition of all copies or phonorecords found to have been made or used in violation of the copyright owner’s exclusive rights, and of all plates, molds, matrices, masters, tapes, film negatives, or other articles by means of which such copies or phonorecords may be reproduced.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I believe that &quot;other reasonable disposition &quot; can sometimes include turning infringing copies over to the successful plaintiff.</p>
<p>However, registration requires payment of a <a href="https://www.copyright.gov/about/fees.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">fee</a> currently $45 for a single work, or $85 for a group of up to 10 unpublished works. Registering thousands of designs would involve significant costs.</p>
<p>It would be possible for a group of artisans to design and adopt a trademark, and use this on future works, or even incorporate it into the design.</p>
<p>Under <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/15/1116" rel="nofollow noreferrer">15 USC 1116</a>(d) items offered for sale containing  a counterfeit trademark can be seized on suitable application from the trademark owner, but the owner may be liable for damages if this leads to a false seizure.</p>
<p>Damages may be obtained if a trademark is improperly used without permission. Such seized items may later be ordered destroyed. Some of this applies only to registered trademarks. However, trademark registration is a somewhat complex process, and there are fees and expenses involved. Non-US persons are, I understand, required to employ a US trademark attorney, and others are strongly advised to do so.</p>
<p>See <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/15/chapter-22" rel="nofollow noreferrer">15 USC Chapter 22</a> for the whole trademark law.</p>

<p>For new designs a design patent might be appropriate in the U.S. Note that they are for manufactured articles. Manufacturing does not exclude things made by hand but if each item is individually, uniquely designed then it wouldn’t work for you. In most other countries there is a similar protection for the ornamental design of products but it is not usually under the location’s patent system.</p>

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