Copyright Laws
A designer’s ideas and creative works are their source of income. But with modern technology and the internet, keeping your ideas and creative works just for you is extremely difficult. It is easy for someone to steal your work and pass it off as if it was their original idea. There are copyright laws out there to protect designers. Examples that may not be copyrighted include: Titles, slogans or names; familiar symbols or designs; ideas or concepts or calendars & charts. A few of these however, are trademark-able.
A copyright is available to a designer as soon as they get the idea onto paper or drawn into their computer. Even though registration isn’t necessary for copyright protection if you want the right to sue or legally claim ownership it is necessary. Putting a copyright symbol on your work is not required, but it does help prevent people from claiming they didn’t know it was copyrighted.
If a designer chooses to use someone else’s work and create a new design, they must get the owner’s permission and the new design will be owned by both designers.