Briefing Note - Published Editions and Typographical Arrangements

Protection for typographical arrangements was introduced after the invention of photo-lithography in the early 20th century. The process of photo-lithography enabled commercial printing based on photographic images of a published edition. At the time, publishers reproduced classic literary works that had fallen out of copyright, as the duration for protection had elapsed. Other publishers were readily able to directly and exactly copy the works and sell those copies in competition to the original publisher. Due to the state if the law at the time, the publisher had no right of recourse against the competitor who had copied their typographical arrangement.

Protection for these typographical arrangements was first introduced in section 15 of the Copyright Act 1956, and were transposed in the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 UK, in section 1(1). A "Published Edition" is defined at s 8(1) as a 'published edition of the whole or part of one or more literary, dramatic or musical works, and the exclusive right to reproduce the typographical arrangement of the published edition is owned by the publisher: ss 9(1) & 16(2). The 'edition' is the product between the covers which a publisher offers to the public. The edition is treated as the whole of what is published for the purposes of assessing whether infringement has taken place. The typographical arrangement is protected for 25 years: s 15. The typographical arrangement is constituted by the layout of the articles within the published edition. We set out the differences between copyright and patent here, discuss patents and confidential information.