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| Author MatzeTrier Licence CC BY-SA 3.0 Source Wikimedia Commons |
The fire at Notre Dame, the Christchurch earthquake and the 1984 fire at York Minster are reminders of the fragility and vulnerability of the world's cathedrals. The skills of the craftsmen who erected and decorated those places of worship are as much in demand at present as they were when those buildings were constructed.
An initiative to keep those skills alive is The Centre of Excellence for Heritage Craft Skills and Estate Management which will establish a campus for research, education and training in stonemasonry, glass painting and setting, joinery and other traditional skills. The Centre of Excellence will comprise a Heritage Quad and a Works and Technology Hub. The Minster has published a video on Youtube which offers a virtual tour of the campus. According to Miran Rahman, the City Council has now approved plans for the new construction (see York Minster Centre of Excellence plans win approval 2 Sept 2022 TheBusinessDesk).
None of the announcements in the press or on the Minster's website mentions intellectual property but at least some of the works of the craftsmen and women at the Centre of Excellence are likely to generate or be capable of generating substantial. Most of the works will be works of artistic craftsmanship within the meaning of s.4 (1) (c) of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. The Centre and Quad are likely to acquire goodwill which can best be protected by trade mark registration. There will be plenty of trade secrets and possibly even some inventions at the Works and Technology Hub.
Like most research and teaching institutions the Centre is likely to develop an IP policy if it has not already done so. In many cases, the works of those craftsmen and women will belong to their employers but in some instances, it will be theirs to exploit. Happily, there are a lot of patent and trade mark agencies and specialist IP lawyers in York. There is also an IP clinic at Leeds Central Library.
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