Design: Copyright reform gives a licence to imitators: Manufacturers will soon be permitted to duplicate many mass-produced products

THERE is no obvious link between car parts and kitchen utensils. But the two could soon have a lot in common.

From next August, just about anybody will be able to copy any product deemed to be lacking any inventive or aesthetic qualities. This means that such basic items as coffee pots, bedroom units or perhaps rivets may no longer be protected from imitators. Applications for licences can be made from this month under the provisions of the 1988 Copyright Designs and Patents Act.

The development is the latest stage in a loosening of the intellectual property laws that has been under way for a decade. Earlier this month, it emerged that a much-delayed overhaul of the system for registering and protecting trademarks is to be introduced in the Government's legislation programme this autumn.

Meanwhile, the Confederation of British Industry and the Copyright Law Association, a body representing authors and publishers, have set up a task force to produce a 'fair and workable' licensing system for the photocopying of printed material by businesses.

One lawyer believes that the Act has created 'both a serious threat and a major opportunity'. David de Vall, a barrister at the City law firm Theodore Goddard, said it could threaten manufacturers and designers who have relied on copyright to protect their market positions.

On the other hand, he said, 'entrepreneurs and competitors, who have seen monopoly profits being made from designs that have been protected only by copyright, will see this barrier tumble'.

This is because the Act has created the 'design right' - an unregistered right that replaces copyright as the principal form of design protection. The main difference is that it offers only 15 years' protection - compared with the old copyright term, which was the life of the designer plus 50 years.

The 1988 legislation stemmed from a widely held view that it was unfair for mass-produced articles to have greater protection than the 20 years offered under the patents system or the 15 years under registration of design. Impetus for the reforms was provided in the mid-1980s by a House of Lords ruling in BL v Armstrong. This paved the way for the commercial free-for-all that some lawyers are predicting, by breaking the effective monopoly of car companies on the manufacture of spare parts - so allowing the drive-in exhaust centres.

The Patents Office is not so convinced of the level of demand. Brian Simpson of the office's intellectual property policy directorate said little interest had been shown since 1 August. Meanwhile, David Latham of solicitors Lovell White, pointed out that would-be copiers are more likely to continue 'passing off' rather than pay a royalty for the right to copy legitimately.

But Mr de Vall feels that once the potential is realised, items of furniture, kitchen utensils and general fittings protected only by copyright will become targets for licence applicants.

Under the legislation, design right will offer protection from copying for 15 years from the end of the calendar year in which the design came into being, or 10 years from the end of the year in which articles made to the design were first marketed anywhere in the world - whichever is less.

In the last five years of the design right period, anybody is entitled to a compulsory licence to copy the design. Applications may be made up to a year in advance of the five-year period - which is why the first applications can be made this month.

But what may really be exciting for Mr de Vall and many of his colleagues is the chance of extra legal business. 'It is one of the most difficult areas of intellectual property,' he said, suggesting plenty of litigation to come.