British shoppers will no longer be able to furnish their houses with many items of cheap replica designer furniture following changes to European copyright laws. A new European Union ruling will give designers protection by extending copyright from 25 to 70 years after the designer’s death, reported Mail Online. Companies that continue to sell replica furniture could face criminal charges. Iconic designs such as the Egg chair, the Arco floor lamp and the Eames lounge chair, designed by American designers Charles and Ray Eames in 1956, will again be protected by copyright law within the EU. Eames original moulded plastic chairs. In Australia the sale of replica furniture continues to thrive with online retailers such as Milan Direct, Zanui, Matt Blatt and Sokol legally selling replicas of classic designs. Louisa Moran from Herman Miller, which owns the rights to Eames furniture, welcomed the European ruling. “I think it would be fabulous if it had an effect on how people purchased replicas in Australia,” she said.
“But I think you do need very firm laws in place like they have in the UK to actually make that happen.” “In Australia, companies like Matt Blatt, Glicks, Target, Kmart and Bunnings have got fakes on their floor, but the ones who advertise them as replicas are allowed to use the design name as long as they say it is a replica,” explains Moran. Much imitated … the Eames lounge chair and ottoman were designed by Americans Charles and Ray Eames, in 1956. The problem according to Moran is that she doesn’t think Australians associate replicas with fakes. “They don’t realise that they are buying a respected original design that has been manufactured in a sub-standard way. I don’t think they understand the integrity, the legacy, the history of those original designs. It is tricking the consumer and undervaluing the original design. The manufacturing standards are not there with fakes and I think the general public are being duped.” A plastic moulded Eames chair sold by Zanui costs around $50, while an original from Living Edge, the national retailer for Herman Miller, starts at $690.
An Arco floor lamp purchased through Milan Direct costs $99, whereas an original from the Conran Shop in the UK sells for around £1425 ($2790). “We offer replica furniture because it is in demand” explains Ryely Newman from online retailer, Zanui. “The reason that replica furniture is popular is because they are stylish designs at accessible price points.” The classic Arco floor lamp designed by Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni in 1962. Photo: supplied by Euroluce Newman thinks the UK ruling “shouldn’t have any immediate effect on Australian consumers though we expect Australian law could follow suit sometime in the future.” “The UK changes are timely and provide a worthy example for Australia to follow,” says Anne-Maree Sargeant from the Authentic Design Alliance, a members-based education platform promoting original design and aiming for replica designer furniture and lighting and intellectual property theft to become illegal in Australia.
The Alliance is set to relaunch in May. However, adds Sargeant, “we have a slightly more difficult task given ‘original design’ is not valued by Australians. Similarly, getting the attention of the government has been challenging as the copied product designs have been difficult to quantify in economic terms.” Sargeant says that she speaks regularly to Australian designers who “discover copies of their original designs in hotels, restaurants and office fit outs in large quantities. Significant quantities that dwarf volumes sold at consumer retailers. In these instances Australian businesses are sending the images and product specifications owned by the designer or licensed manufacturer to Asia and copied, then imported to Australia.” “Robbing them of this income stream is damaging the future for Australian designers and if this continues there will be no real incentive for our designers to create original products. Unless of course they move to the UK or other protected territories.”
She says to make matters worse, the word “replica” is not clearly understood, with many people mistaking it to mean vintage. Jo-Ann Kellock, CEO of the Australian Design Alliance (AdA), the alliance of peak professional organisations that represent designers across all aspects of Australia’s design industry says that “changes to legislation such as that in the UK makes her concerned that Australia is vulnerable via its current intellectual property arrangements and free trade agreements to becoming the global dumping ground of replicas and dodgy products.” Australia’s intellectual property arrangements are currently under review by the Productivity Commission with a draft report expected to be released at the end of April, says Kellock. The European ban on replica rip-offs has given a glimmer of hope to some Australian furniture designers who are increasingly frustrated with Australia’s lack of copyright and design protection. Priyanka Rao, director of furniture manufacturer, Luxmy Furniture, which works under licence with Australian designers, says she welcomes the EU ruling and hopes that it will raise awareness among consumers that buying a fake is not the right ethical choice and that buyers will eventually stop wanting to own inferior quality replica furniture in the same way fake designer handbags have lost their appeal.
Milan Direct declined to comment for this article.A look at why it is essential to enforce legislation against furniture design knockoffs. The article below by Tony Ash, managing director of Vitra UK, was recently featured in the design publication Insight. It explores why nobody wins when the market is flooded with forged goods. Why Isn’t the UK Government acting to curb the scandal of fake furniture? If you’ve watched a DVD recently, it probably started with an advert highlighting that ‘you wouldn’t steal a handbag, so why would you steal a DVD?’ The point it’s making is that it’s unacceptable to buy poor quality copies of DVDs. They’re fake products and there’s a stigma attached to them, in the same way there’s a stigma attached to buying a fake watch, handbag or a forged piece of art. That’s how things should work, but this isn’t yet the case for fake furniture in the UK. And the reason for this is government inaction that is not only allowing a market for poorer quality replicas of iconic designs to exist, but to thrive.
In April 2013 the UK government passed the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act, a section of which closed a loophole in British intellectual property law. Under the new regulations, artistic designs for products such as furniture would be protected for up to 70 years after the designer’s death. Before the Act was passed, if more than 50 copies of a design were made, it was considered to be mass produced and was subject to only 25 years’ protection. In passing this legislation, the government brought the UK into line with the majority of countries in the EU. Or so you would think. Because 18 months after the legislation was passed, the regulations to close the loophole are yet to be implemented. This delay extended the life of the UK market for what are forged goods–a market that’s been offered a further reprieve by a recently closed government consultation on plans for a three year transition to the new regulations, along with an indefinite sell through for replica goods.
What that means is that the manufacturers of these knock-offs would have the right to sell their remaining stock with impunity even after the transition period has ended. And of course, they’ll manufacture as much stock as they can in that time. By delaying the implementation of these recommendations, the UK government is sending the message that it’s acceptable to purchase poor quality replicas of iconic designs. These are manufactured overseas, often bought and sold online, and only in the best case scenario are assembled in the UK. They provide little if any benefit to the UK economy, and instead take advantage of UK intellectual property rules to use Britain as a marketplace for inferior quality goods. You would expect the government to be working to protect British designers, having accepted the need to bring its intellectual property laws into line with the majority of the EU. But this is yet to happen. And by failing to implement the regulations they have themselves introduced, British ministers have not only allowed the market for fake goods to continue, but given it legitimacy and their tacit approval.
This urgently needs to change, and it needs to start by the government and the Intellectual Property Office specifically recognising the folly of allowing fake furniture goods to continue being sold on their watch. It’s bad enough that 18 months have lapsed since the government passed legislation on the issue, but frankly inexcusable that a transition period is now being considered. A transition period was unnecessary when the legislation was passed in April 2013. Since then, the internet dealers of these fake goods manufactured overseas have had an 18 month grace period. They are hardly in need of a further three years, nor do they warrant the right to sell whatever stock they can import in that time. Tony Ash is the managing director of Vitra UK. Please visit Vitra to see a wealth of authentic products by world-renowned designers. Insight is the UK’s most widely read publication dedicated to the design and management of workplaces, offering a definitive source of daily ideas, comment, news and information.