Decolonization to post -colonial African Musicians became an imperative. Singing in one’s native language was not creative expression alone, but also a reclamation of indigenous culture and identity. In Decolonising the Mind, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o makes a case for African literature to be written in African languages. He also points out that singers and musicians have resisted mental colonization by retaining indigenous musical practices while promoting innovation: ‘These singers pushed the languages to new limits, renewing and reinvigorating them by coining new words and new expressions, and in generally expanding their capacity to incorporate new happenings in Africa and the world’ (1986:23).
ated’, it is unwise to leave other forms of national cumulative protection, including national UDR remain untouched, while the rights create trade distortion in the single market. In other words, a designer may receive different level of protections throughout the EU community; mala fide third parties may take advantages of this loophole to create counterfeit items and selling them in some EU states, where design protection are weakened. Interestingly, those national cumulative rights may in fact be more reliable to designers. Trimmer and Parsons argue that unregistered design may be a better alternative for design protection in cases that involve registered design, as infringement on unregistered design are in times easier to be established .
In the case of Kohler Mira Ltd v Bristan Group Ltd , the court found infringement to UK UDRs based on knowledge, even though infringement was not proven itself. The case concerned of both registered and unregistered design rights subsisting in electric shower unit. The court accepted the evidence of an independent design process provided by a designer of Bristan (defendant). Although the designer himself had no knowledge of the claimant’s design, the senior members of Bristan know about the claimant’s design but failed to stop the production. Thus, it is enough to suffice the infringements to UK UDRs of Kohler. In relation to the RCDs, no infringement to be found, there are indeed some common features shared by the products, but not enough to create the same overall impression. The Kohler case is a prime example demonstrating how far the court is prepares to go to protect the UDRs, and more importantly, to reiterate and strengthen the value of this type of IP right to designers.
Registered design right and protection
The UK registered design and EU community registered design are the two-registered design rights enforceable in the UK. Registration should be filed within 12 months of the product being first marketed, with a term of protection up to 25 years, renewal is required in every five years. Design is defined in the regulation as ‘the appearance of the whole or a part of a product resulting from the features of, in particular the lines, contours, colours, shape, texture and/or materials of the product itself and/or its ornamentation’. It is the graphical identifications being protected, but not the idea behind the design. A design that serves purely technical or functional purposes may rathe
