Confusion; otherwise known as intellectual property rights and copyright law

Recently I've been operating under my designer/artist role more than I have my aspiring author one, and for good reason: I've been working with a group of people to get a map designed that provides both the local and tourist populations with a free guide to some pretty cool stuff in Wellington. The city is pretty well-known for its eccentricity in some ways - born in part of its diminutive size and the "you can walk anywhere you want to go" reality that lends, meaning that everything is readily accessible and people are able to actually interact with each other face-to-face rather than through the windows of their cars. It's got a great creative scene and what's known here as a "café culture"; the city is about people and people interacting with one another, at least in some ways, and the experiences that this interaction enables. The chance to do some design work focusing on the local atmosphere has been quite enjoyable, to say the least.

This focus has sapped a lot of my freer time and energy, though - to the point of having to write a list to tick things off just to make sure I'm getting somewhere with the numerous things I want to do. Have I mentioned that already? Maybe so. One of those things has been the legal registration of intellectual property rights to a design of mine - something I, and many others, might not think to do as the first step in a creative process, but one which must surely be easily-enough completed.

As it turns out...no, this isn't necessarily the case. I found out today from a friend I'd been discussing it with that registration of intellectual property rights over a design in New Zealand is, in fact, only possible if the design has not been published publicly. As told by the report they were issued recently, even if something is original and its only instance of publication has been by the individual/company seeking to register it as their intellectual property, the fact it has even been published negates any ability to register it as such.

It's really quite strange - especially considering that on the great wide internet the only instance of their design ever having been published was on a profile associated with them alone. I suppose I understand it, in that once something is out there in the world it's seen and interpreted by many eyes and minds, and so loses its absolute "newness" - but it doesn't really make any sense, given that they, the designer and publisher of the design, were the one seeking to register the intellectual property rights they already had (and have) over it. Part of me is led to think that paying to register one's intellectual property rights is held in some way to be equal to the publication of an idea under one's name - i.e., once the design is published under one's name the intellectual property rights are asserted.

Whether this is the case, I'm not sure. My friend possesses those intellectual property rights, absolutely, just as I do over my unregistered design. And they possess a report saying that the reason they cannot register those rights is because they've already published the design under their own name - meaning that a search was conducted and the design was found to exist under their name already. The report might be seen thereby to reinforce those rights. They just can't register those rights under New Zealand law. It all seems a little weird.

But this leads me towards another conundrum regarding legal possession of original information: the New Zealand stance on copyright.

The crux of the situation is this: if you possess the manuscript to written work then you hold copyright of that work. There's no need to register it or complete a formal process of declaration of your possession of copyright because possessing the physical or electronic manuscript is enough.

But...is it? For instance, if you send a piece of work to someone for review, do they then possess copyright to it as well? Or does it come down to keeping track of all letters, emails and other forms of communication which establish who sent what when? It all seems a bit easily subverted, really. And then of course one must consider that if one does not wish to put stock in such a process lending any legal support to one's actual claim of possession of copyright, in New Zealand one doesn't actually have any other option by way of legal process: there is no way to register copyright in New Zealand to any written work. As stated by the Copyright Council of New Zealand,

Copyright comes into existence automatically under the Copyright Act 1994, when a work is put into material form e.g. manuscript, audio/video recording.

No registration is necessary (or even possible), nor is any other formality required for securing copyright protection.

As I'm sure anyone out there who has written anything ever might wonder, how does non-registration establish possession of copyright, exactly? The simple explanation of it as far as my worry dictates is, well, it doesn't...maybe. Actually, this is what leads me to think publication of a design under one's name asserts intellectual property rights: if you can demonstrate you did it first, then you did it first, at least according to New Zealand law. Whether it actually does is for the silly people out there (like me) who want to be able to create things and not have someone out there swoop in and try to take those creations away.

In the UK things are done one step better: to establish copyright one must take the completed manuscript of something and mail it to oneself and then never open the parcel. The date printed by a simple ink stamp at whatever mail hub it was which processed your mail that day is enough to establish that you are the originator of the contents of the package and when you completed its creation. That's what I've done with my novella manuscript. Someone I know overseas possesses a physical copy of an early draft of it I sent them back in 2012 (I believe), but I have the email trail saved to establish origin. The next step for me is registration in the US - where there is a way to register copyright.

It really does make one think, though. What are the laws that protect intellectual property rights and copyright doing if they preclude or make impossible any registration? The mind boggles.