Creative Commons licences and design

This article analyses whether Cre-ative Commons licences are applicable to and com-patible with design. The first part focuses on thepeculiar and complex nature of a design, which canbenefit from a copyright and a design protection.This shows how it can affect the use of CreativeCommons licences. The second and third parts dealwith a specific case study. Some Internet platformshave recently emerged that offer users the possibil-ity to download blueprints of design products in or-der to build them. Designers and creative users areinvited to share their blueprints and creations un-der Creative Commons licences. The second part ofthe article assesses whether digital blueprints can becopyrightable and serve as the subject matter of Cre-ative Commons licences, while the last part assesseswhether the right to reproduce the digital blueprint,as provided by Creative Commons licences, extendsto the right to build the product.