Abstract :
The effect on electrical engineers of The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 is broadly summarised by the author, who points out several areas of concern. The author shows that while legal protection for computer software has been maintained, and possibly even strengthened, thanks to forceful representations from the industry, manufacturers of computer hardware and other electrical equipment have lost copyright protection for their manufactured articles and are given instead an unregistered design right (a new concept in the UK) lasting for 10 years
