"It had me in stitches ...": the UK IPO takes up knitting and sewing

"Just how long have you been using my
pattern without a licence?", demanded Alice

News of "Copyright Notice: knitting and sewing patterns" was published by the UK Intellectual Property Office yesterday. This document, known to the fine folk of Whitehall as Copyright Notice Number: 4/2015, contains five sides of free and quite handy advice about the intellectual property aspects of knitting and sewing patterns, with reference to both copyright law and design protection.

Not intended as legal advice or even as a substitute for it, the Notice is planned as a way of helping readers understand the issues.  This blogger spotted the statement that

Information on the various forms of design protection is available at https://www.gov.uk/design-right or through contacting the Intellectual Property Office,

and indeed the IPO is remarkably helpful and user-friendly. However, even the best government IP services (if indeed there are any better than the IPO) can provide something that creative designers crave even more than information about design protection: they also need a shoulder to cry on and someone to make practical suggestions as to how to go about protecting their investment and their ingenuity in a cruel world in which, it often feels, everyone is against them. That's why this blogger would suggest that, when 4/2015 is next revised, a brief reference and link to Anti Copying in Design (ACID) be inserted.