FAQ Entry #134

This is a respond to a previously asked question about the A' Design Award and Competition. The full list of frequently asked questions can be accessed here.

#134: I am interested in joining the Design competition, but I do not have the copyrights or patents regarding my idea/design. I would like to know if I am eligible without them. If I apply without a patent, what could ensure that my idea/design is secure, how can I protect my design/idea.

You can apply without patents or copyrights to any of the categories. To protect your Idea's globally, the best practice would be to apply for a world-wide patent, which is really expensive but could be equally useful. We usually let winners know the status of their applications in advance so that you could start application for such a patent in advance. In addition, we give a distinct certificate for each application which could potentially be used to protect yourself from possible legal cases, the certificate includes your design details, the submission date and your identity information and could be legally helpful but is not a guaranteed protection; in many countries, patents will be given priority. To underline it once more, having a patent for your idea (either globally or country based) is the right thing to do and we strongly suggest you to do so if you want to protect your design or ideas. By joining the competition and nominating your design, you would test your idea in advance before making such investment.

Keywords: patents, copyrights, design patents, design copyrights, protecting designs, securing design rights, securing production rights, eligibility

The following questions could be related:

• #8: Do I need to have an affiliation with a design company, design organization or design related institution to join the A' Design Competition?
• #9: Do I need to be a designer, or a design graduate to join the A' Design Award and Competition?
• #52: Can I join this competition?
• #74: What are the eligibility age for custom design competitions?
• #85: I have a patented structural system for furniture, am I eligible for the furniture design competition?
• #149: How can I learn if my design is applicable, or if my entry be counted or if my design is eligible for winning the award?
• #156: Concerning the privacy and publishing settings I am not quite sure which option to go for. I have no patent for my product, yet if I should be a winner then I would be most interested in having my design published and sent to the press. If my design is seen in various media after I have filed for a patent then I would be more reassured. However, if press release takes place when no measures have been taken to obtain a patent, then this would be risky.
• #157: I have my brand or logo patented in my country only. If I were to show this logo in publications, would this be detrimental to the continued existence of my brand, since it will be exposed at an international level where I have no protection. Would an additional copyright covering 164 countries help ?
• #177: We have our products ready for manufacturing but they are not yet manufactured, would our products still be considered for this years competition?
• #188: Is it safe for me to submit designs that I do not yet have patents on?
• #194: Can any one person enter the competion, or do I have to be part of a company?
• #199: I have an approved patent for my design, can I still join the design competition?
• #209: Can you tell me if submissions need to have been created in the last year or if they can have been created at any time?
• #226: Will my award winning entry publicly visible? Can I patent it after results announced?
• #251: I would like to know if there is only specific projects that can be submitted for car design award - for example specific range of car design - for automotive design sector - or any type of car design can be submitted to the car design award?
• #286: I would like to know who will have the patent of designed product. will it belong to winner or your committee?
• #295: Is it possible to enter the design competition with a design which I entered to another competition before?
• #309: Will the intellectual property rights of the designer be protected as a result of the submission of the design?
• #321: We would like to upload few of our projects to the Design Awards. But the thing is that one of them was sent to different architectural competition. Can we use the same project to participate in your competition? Please let us know if it's not against your policies, so we can go ahead and upload our concepts to your website.
• #323: I am planning to submit one of my design to the awards. Would it be possible for me to submit the exact same product to another competition?
• #324: What projects are eligible for the architecture categories: completed and conceptual, or just completed?
• #334: What is the public release date of the product in order to apply for the design award?
• #337: Is there any limitation about number of people in a design team?
• #338: Is there any limitations for participating in different fields or design award categories?
• #373: Is there a criteria for product design where it must be in distributed and available for retail through any specific timeline?
• #379: Could you please inform me that how many different projects can I submit in the same year? Additionally, can I submit a project which won a different Design Award prize?
• #380: I'd like to submit my work for a competition, but I'm not sure if it's eligible. It's a logo that got rejected by the client, therefore not realized. Is that work eligible for a competition or not?
• #382: I an planning to attend the competition, but still I have a doubt. Do I have to send to A'Design Award & Competition the real product, or just the images and texts?
• #390: Is it necessary that the design must be published in same year of award entry?
• #393: Is there any condition about availability of the product on the market, e.g. products have to be on the market till the end of this year?
• #394: Can I submit my old works or can our company can submit old products?
• #407: Is it required for submission that the product is new design? For example can I submit a product I designed several years ago?
• #408: Is there a specific requirement for when the submitted project was completed? (How recently completed can a project be? Also, how old can a project be to qualify?)
• #411: Should we need Client approval when we are going to apply for the design award?
• #413: Do I still remain the sole owner of the copyright to my works, if I nominate my work to the competition?
• #418: I would like to apply for a project which is already online on my personal website. Is that against the terms and conditions?
• #427: After being awarded the prestigious A' Design Award with my project this year, I have been approached by someone from another international competition with an invitation to participate with the same project in their competition free of charge, Am I allowed to do that? Do the regulations of the A' Design Award allow me to send in the project to another competition?
• #443: Hi, I would like to know if United States citizens are eligible to participate in this design award? Would the fees be the same?
• #456: I have an award winning work, will the design award cover the cost of my international patent application?
• #458: I am an extremely talented minor, I am not yet able to vote in my country, can I join the design competition?
• #461: I wonder, if I could submit my work just as the design, is it possible? I mean can I just send only the sketch, rendering, concept but not the actual product for ward consideration?
• #477: The status says REJECTED for my entry but I have paid for this entry to be nominated. What does that mean when my entry is REJECTED?
• #509: What are the difference between patents and copyright for the costs and duration?
• #510: Can I take someone else photo or design and use in my design or work?
• #511: Is my design protected by copyrights?
• #524: How long will the results of the A' Design Award be kept confidential?
• #534: Is there risk of publishing my design online from the perspective of copyrights and patents?

If you did not find your answer, please feel free to check the faq pages for more questions and answers. You will also want to check our webpage for details; thanks to our transparency policy, we document and publish everything.