Why Intellectual Property Is Important to Herman Miller?

WHY INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY IS IMPORTANT TO HERMAN MILLER?

At the recent Young Professional Industry Experience, an introduction to intellectual property day was organised by Anti Copying in Design supported by its affiliate lawyers. Launched in 2014, the YPIE course brings together some of the best and brightest young talent in the furnishing industry to take part in an intensive three-week learning programme. IP emphasis focused around the importance of brand and design protection and ACID created a competition so that delegates could talk about IP and their brands. The winning essayist, Emily Dwyer of Herman Miller tells her story about why brand protection is critical to Herman Miller.

“It is not just the high quality products that we offer. The purpose of what we do is to create work environments that encourage productivity, collaboration, and well-being. To be able to get this message across, and to gain and maintain loyal customers, we need to ensure that our brand reflects this.

For decades, Herman Miller have produced innovative products to solve problems, both in the home, and workplace. The amount of investment, skill, and knowledge that has gone into achieving these iconic pieces that have evident passion in their designs, deserves respect. That is where Intellectual Property becomes vital.

By protecting our designs globally, we can prevent design copying that would otherwise have a negative impact on our brand. It isn’t just the effort that has gone into the creation of designs, but it is also developing the means of manufacturing the products- which can be patented. There’s also the quality and ethical sourcing of components. It’s the customer service before and after sales, as well. If all of this is undermined by copies that are of inferior quality, potential damage to the brand is extensive.

There have been collaborations with external designers over the years, who have created products that we have developed for manufacture. We understand that these designs are of their creation, and so, appropriate licenses need to be developed to acknowledge that we will be the sole user of the author’s creation, and to ensure that they are appropriately compensated.

Another notable Intellectual Property milestone within Herman Miller was the licensing of the Eames range, back in the mid-eighties. From the start of 1986, the production and sale of the Eames range within EMEA was licensed to Vitra. Acknowledging this license supports our brand.

Lastly, it is not just the intellectual property of Herman Miller that is important to our brand- it is the intellectual property of others. At Herman Miller, we want to be creative and original. We don’t want to copy others. We want to be honest, and by knowing what is already in the industry, we reduce the chance of investing in developments that already exists. Respecting others’ work is also important to our brand”.