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success, Design respect
Design success, Design respect
FMCA-Award winning furniture manufacturers with attitude
The scenario goes something like this: a major new casino goes out to tender
for the manufacturing of a range of chairs. Brisbane-based Furniture Manufacturing
Company of Australia (FMCA) is on the tender list and receives several photos
of the preferred designs. One of the chairs they are asked to tender on - along
with their competition, of course - is actually from their own range.
This is how the industry has worked. But Robert Falzon, Managing Director and
founder of FMCA goes one further. Having recently protected a new range through
the Designs Office of IP Australia, Falzon checks to see if any of the other
chairs are currently protected by a design registration - a legal monopoly over
the design for its owner.
Sure enough, one of the six chairs is design protected. Falzon contacts the
casino project managers and states that he will not be tendering on the chair
in question. This raises eyebrows, but his position is clear.
'The next thing that happened,' says Falzon, 'we received a letter from our
competitors - the owners of the chair design - thanking us for our integrity
and the respect we showed their proprietary rights. They went on to state their
respect for us.'
This consolidated Falzon's growing conviction that his industry could do with
a solid understanding of intellectual property rights. This in itself would
achieve respect for design ownership and flow on to halting design exploitation
- common in the large-scale furniture manufacturing arena.
'One of the only ways to effect change is to go out on a limb,' says Falzon,
certainly not a new-comer to pioneering new directions.
In the last few years, FMCA has grown from small scale commissioned manufacturing
of other people's designs, with four staff and $250,000 a year turnover, to
a company with an international orientation which launches new ranges each year
for their own catalogue, has 45 staff, overseas representation, and an expected
turnover this financial year of around $5 million.
Their project list reads like a collection of every major development in Australia
in recent years - from casinos, resorts, theatres, restaurants and hotels, to
commercial offices, embassies, retail spaces and hospitals.
Their growth was showcased in their tenth year of business by winning the 1996
Telstra Queensland Small Business Awards.
For Falzon, growing sophistication and recognition brought with it an interest
in securing as much protection as possible for their designs. Falzon's patent
attorney started by registering the FMCA logo as a trade mark.
Next, they moved to protect BITE, the exciting, cutting edge range designed
by Brisbane interior designer Kirsti Simpson. Now another dynamic new range,
RENNI, is being taken through the registration process.
For roughly $1,500 in official and patent attorney fees, FMCA initiates a 16
year design monopoly. If they act within six months of the Australian application,
they can also move to protect the designs overseas.
However, Falzon's patent attorney points out, 'We can not seek design registration
once a design has been offered for sale or readied for mass production. We would
still be eligible if FMCA announced a new design in a trade magazine, but not
if they take orders for it. So to avoid these worries, we apply for registration
as soon as the design is finalised, but not yet in industrial production.'
Falzon's commitment to intellectual property protection now also includes applications
for registered trade marks to monopolise the names of each of the new ranges.
'Design registration, registered trade marks, copyright, this the future. We
are a progressive business - we move forward in design and we see ourselves
breaking ground in the industry,' says Falzon.
And they have the accolades to prove it.
Additional information
The following trade marks are registered by FMCA:
FMCA
571973 (Class 24)
925235 20 (Class 20)
You can conduct an online search for
these or other trademarks.
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