DrawDesign: Copyright, Professional Issues, and Business Case Analysis

This report focuses on the professional issues and copyright challenges faced by DrawDesign, a digital design solutions company. It delves into relevant copyright legislations, codes of practice, and social responsibilities, specifically referencing the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and the Chartered Society of Designers' codes. The report develops a comprehensive business case for DrawDesign, highlighting objectives, implementation strategies, risk assessments, and recommendations. Furthermore, it presents a detailed action plan, including mission, vision, strategies, tactics, and required resources, aimed at ensuring the company's legal compliance and ethical conduct as it expands its operations. The report concludes with a summary of the key findings and recommendations to facilitate effective business practices within the digital design industry.

Professional Issues & Practice

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................1
Relevant copyright legislations, codes of practice and social responsibility...............................1
Business case for DrawDesign....................................................................................................3
Action plan with justification......................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Professional issues are the challenges which individuals has to face in a workplace and in
business environment. It is important for an organisation and its employees to follow all the
appropriate professional codes for regulated conduct of their business (George, Bley and
Pellegrino, 2019). The main aim of this report is develop a management report along with an
action plan for an organisation. The scenario which is selected for this report is related to a
digital design solutions company based on the outskirts of Southampton. This company is
assumed to be named as “DrawDesign”. This organisation is currently facing various issues
regarding adherence of various copyright laws.
In this report, various legislations, codes of practice and justified social responsibilities are
explained with the aim of developing a business case for the selected organisation. At last, an
action plan will also be created in this management report which will include suggested laws and
codes that organisation must implement for effective and legal functioning.
MAIN BODY
Relevant copyright legislations, codes of practice and social responsibility
The organisation DrawDesign is a developer of digital design solutions. This organisation is
facing issues due to the legislations and codes of conduct (Hughes and Chadwick, 2019). This
organisation currently is in growing phase and is expanding towards the national market. It is
important for this organisation to follow all the legislations for smooth operations. For this,
various copyright legislations, code of practice and social responsibilities are proposed below
which company must adhere to:
Copyright legislations:
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 – DrawDesign is a growing company which
operates in the region of Southampton. This company is expanding their operations nationally.
The copyright legislations of United Kingdom are applied to this company which must be
followed by them. Under Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 there is a separate section of
regulations that is “Designs” which is applied to this company.
There are various elements in this legislation which includes divides the copyright into
sections of original dramatic works, musical works, artistic works and literary works. The
services provided by DrawDesign fall in the category of artistic works. It is not important that a
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copyright can only be gained by an individual. It can be gained by an organisation as well; in
fact, there are sections in this law for joint authorship as well which can allow two or more
individual or organisation to hold joint ownership of an artistic work. The design solutions
provided by DrawDesign are intangible assets and are referred as intellectual property. It is
proposed to this company that they should follow all the sections of this law and should register
their all the designs so that they can gain a copyright for each artistic work.
Code of practice:
Every organisation whether public or private does not only have to adhere with legal but
also the ethical compilations (Cushion, Griffiths and Armour, 2019). The code of practice are the
regulations which does not imply legal obligations but are considered as a duty which must be
conducted for the purpose of effective functioning and fulfilling ethical responsibility. In context
of DrawDesign, there are various codes of practice which this organisation and its employees
must comply with. There are few varied institutions which provides these codes of conduct and
for the context of designing practice conduct, codes of Chartered Society of Designers, United
Kingdom must be considered.
There are various codes of conduct which must be complied by professionals and some of
them are:
 Members of this institution will be responsible for any misconduct of all the persons
employed by the member.
 If any member wishes to file a complaint regarding any matter, then they should do it in
writing.
 Members shall conduct their business competently and act as their part with integrity.
 Members shall treat all the information gained by the client as confidential and work in a
dignified manner.
 Members shall not copy designs of any other designer knowingly or unknowingly (Code
of conduct by Chartered Society of Designers, 2020).
All the above mentioned code of practice are not the few examples which must be complied
by DrawDesign and their employees. It is important to show integrity and honesty towards the
work so that ethical conduct of business can be done. The above codes of practice are proposed
for this organisation.
Social responsibilities:
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Social responsibilities are the duties which an organisation must comply with but there
will be no legal obligations if any company fails to comply with them. In context of
DrawDesign, there are various social responsibilities which must be fulfilled and some of these
responsibilities are proposed as follows:
 It is a social responsibility of an organisation to fairly compensate all their employees and
develop a working environment which is free from discrimination.
 DrawDesign should ensure that all the information given by their client is kept
confidential.
 Organisation must contribute a part of their earnings towards society so that societal
growth and development can be ensured.
There are various other responsibilities as well which should be fulfilled by DrawDesign.
Business case for DrawDesign
Executive summary
DrawDesign is a digital design solutions company. This is a growing organisation and is
expanding its business at national level in which they are experiencing various issues of
copyright. Various copyright legislations, code of practice and social responsibilities are
recommended to this company by which the company can resolve their issue.
Objectives
 To effective expand in entire United Kingdom in next five years.
 To comply with all legal requirements and fulfil social responsibility.
Implementation strategy
To overcome with the issue of design rights, DrawDesign must comply with all the rules
of Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988. Along with this, the company must understand that
they should not only follow the laws but also should consider the duties against the design
community and society.
Benefits to above strategy
If company will follow Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 then this company can
protect all their designs from the risk of theft. By this, company can register their artistic work
and then no other designer can falsely claim on the designs. This strategy will also enhance their
brand’s image in market by fulfilling the social responsibility.
Risk assessment
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There are various risks which this company might face in implementing the above
strategy. These risks vary in impact and occurrence; the below risk matrix will help to
understand the various risks which can be faced by DrawDesign.
From the above risk matrix, four risk can be identified which will impact the functioning
of DrawDesign if the implement the suggested strategy (Hughes and Chadwick, 2019). The first
identified risk is high need of skilled employees. It should be noted that complying all the laws
and fulfilling all the responsibilities requires skilled employees which have the professional
information regarding legislation. This risk is a minor risk and this will have low impact on the
company and also occurrence of this risk is also low. DrawDesign can procure the legal
assistance from external parties and that way the impact and occurrence of this risk is low.
Second risk in this case is fulfilment of legal parties. When a company is expanding its
services at national level and is complying various laws, then there will be ample legal
formalities which needs to be fulfilled. This need has high chances of occurrence in DrawDesign
but the impact of risk is low as these formalities can be fulfilled by legal department of the
company easily.
The third risk identified in context of DrawDesign is delayed process. In the implemented
strategy, it is recommended to this company that they will first create the designs and design
solutions for the client and then acquire a patent for every artistic work. This procedure will take
a lot of time due to which services will be delayed.
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The last risk identified from above risk matrix is increase in cost. Every copyright is
acquired against a registration fee and being a designing company will imply a heavy amount on
copyright fees. This risk is likely to be occurred regularly and impact of this risk will be huge as
it will decrease the profit margins of the company.
Recommendations
It is recommended to this company that they should focus upon expanding their
operations nationally and should follow all the legal requirements and fulfil their social
rsponsbility. In order to tackle the risk, this company should develop a legal department in their
organisation which can look over all these affairs and can make sure a smooth functioning.
Action plan with justification
DrawDesign is a growing organisation which should consider all the opportunities which
can help them enhance their operations and can help in widens the scope of the business. An
action plan for this company is created below which will ensure that company is addressing all
the issues.
Mission
The first step in this action plan is to set the mission. The mission of the company must
be aligned with their vision. The recommended vision for this company is “to expand the
business operations in entire United Kingdom”.
Vision
The vision is the future state of an organisation which is desired by the owner. This
vision provides the direction to the operations of a business. DrawDesign must consider this as
their vision “DrawDesign is the best design solution platform where constant innovation and
quality is the principle”.
Strategies and tactics
Another step in this action plan is the identification of strategies which organisation must
follow to fulfil above vision and mission (Flodgren and et. al., 2019). The strategies
recommended for DrawDesign are:
 Development of a separate department in organisation which can look after the legal
affairs of the organisation. This department will help in effective functioning of the
company as by this all company will effective follow all the laws of copyright.
DrawDesign is currently operating in Southampton which is part of United Kingdom.
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The company can follow the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988. But once the UK
will leave European Union, the laws for copyrights will change and having a legal
department will help company in gaining competitive advantage.
 Another strategy of this company is to be a part of Chartered Society of Designers,
United Kingdom so that they can be able to fulfil all their ethical requirements (Bennett-
Levy, 2019).
 Another strategy of this company is to follow all the social responsibilities and contribute
a part of their profits towards the society. The viability of this strategy can be evidently
proven by the example of TATA Group. This Group contributes more than 2% of their
profits towards CSR activity by which they have gain immensely attractive brand image.
DrawDesign company can also follow this strategy and can gain sound brand image (CSR
activity of TATA GROUP, 2020).
Resources
Next step in the action plan is to identify the resources which will be required by the
company in order to implement the proposed strategy. The resources required by the
DrawDesign company are:
 Time (1 year)
 Cost (250000 pounds)
 Skilled legal employees
Results
By following the above mentioned action plan, the company will be able to effectively
expand their market in entire United Kingdom. The company will also be able to operate with
any legal issues.
CONCLUSION
As per the above mentioned report it has been concluded that, Professional Issues are
defined as challenges that are being faced by employees in a workplace environment. In order to
overcome professional issues organisation are required to devise strategic plan that are required
to be abide by all the employees. In addition to this, there are relevant copyright legislations,
codes of practice and social responsibility with the help of which organisation can effectively
conduct their operations in best effective manner. Along with this, Strategies and tactics also aid
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organisation to effectively overcome professional issues while ensuring effectively workplace
environment for employees.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
George, A.C., Bley, S. and Pellegrino, J., 2019. Characterizing and Diagnosing Complex
Professional Competencies—An Example of Intrapreneurship. Educational
Measurement: Issues and Practice. 38(2). pp.89-100.
Flodgren, G. and et. al., 2019. Local opinion leaders: effects on professional practice and
healthcare outcomes. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, (6).
Williamson, T.M., Rash, J.A., Campbell, T.S. and Mothersill, K., 2019. Ethical considerations in
assessment and behavioral treatment of obesity: Issues and practice implications for
clinical health psychologists. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice.
Duchan, J. and Felsenfeld, S., 2019. Professional issues: A view from history. Professional
Issues in Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology, p.57.
Tarvydas, R.R.C.V.M., Ethical And Professional Issues In Counseling.
Ervin, N.E., Professional Practice of Nursing Administration.
Hughes, A. and Chadwick, A., 2019. Professional Issues. Learning to Care E-Book: The Nurse
Associate, p.56.
Bennett-Levy, J., 2019. Why therapists should walk the talk: The theoretical and empirical case
for personal practice in therapist training and professional development. Journal of
behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry. 62. pp.133-145.
Cushion, C.J., Griffiths, M. and Armour, K., 2019. Professional coach educators in-situ: A social
analysis of practice. Sport, Education and Society. 24(5). pp.533-546.
Mueller, T.G. and Vick, A.M., 2019. An Investigation of Facilitated Individualized Education
Program Meeting Practice: Promising Procedures That Foster Family–Professional
Collaboration. Teacher Education and Special Education. 42(1). pp.67-81.
Online
Code of conduct by Chartered Society of Designers. 2020. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.csd.org.uk/about/code-of-conduct/>
CSR activity of TATA GROUP. 2020. [Online]. Available through:
<http://www.tatasustainability.com/CSR.aspx>
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