WaterRower Copyright Sunk By Artistry Requirement

The Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (IPEC) has recently held that a commercial water resistance rowing machine known as "WaterRower" is not a "work of artistic craftsmanship" within the meaning of s. 4(1)(c) of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (CDPA).

In the court's view, no UK copyright subsisted in the design and, therefore, the WaterRower machine was not infringed by sales of a replica rowing machine by Hong-Kong based company Liking Limited.

Although the WaterRower machine qualified as an "original work" under the EU Copyright Directive (also referred to as the InfoSoc Directive), the court found it was not a "work of artistic craftsmanship" under the CDPA as it failed to meet the criteria established in UK case law.