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Designers and creatives
Yes, if you sell or license print and pattern designs, or advise businesses on fabrics. A print can be accused of copying another studio’s work after it is already on thousands of metres of cloth, and a consultant’s specification can leave a client with fabric that fails a fire test, fades or shrinks. Professional indemnity insurance usually covers your liability for those losses and the cost of defending the claim. Public liability does not.
Part of: Professional indemnity for designers
In short
Textile work carries two different PI risks. For designers, a print or pattern is an artistic work protected by copyright, so a design that copies someone else’s can draw claims from the rights holder and from every brand that used it. Surface decoration falls outside UK unregistered design right but inside supplementary unregistered design right for 3 years. For consultants, the risk is specification: cover fabrics on UK domestic upholstered furniture must generally pass the match test under the Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1988, and performance advice must hold up. PI with intellectual property cover is designed for both, subject to the policy terms.
Last reviewed 5 October 2026 by the Apex professional indemnity team.
Public liability covers injury and damage: a visitor hurt at your trade stand, or a dye spill in a client’s showroom. It has nothing to say when a print you sold is alleged to copy another design, or when a fabric you recommended fails in use.
Textile businesses sit early in long supply chains. A print designer’s artwork can be sold to a converter, printed by a mill and made up by several brands. A consultant’s advice on fibre, construction or finish can shape a whole furniture range or uniform contract. When something goes wrong, the loss sits at the end of the chain, in stock, recalls and legal costs, but the allegation travels back to the person whose work started it.
Professional indemnity (PI) insurance usually responds to those allegations: your legal liability for financial loss caused by your design or advice, and your defence costs. Check two things when you buy it:
These examples are illustrative: invented situations that reflect the types of dispute textile businesses meet, not actual claims.
Every one of these turns on two questions: did you take the care a competent textile professional would, and were the rights you sold yours to sell?
Prints and patterns are treated differently from garment shapes in UK law, and that difference shapes most textile IP disputes.
| Law or rule | Effect | What it means for claims against you |
|---|---|---|
| Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, s.4 | An artistic work includes a graphic work, such as a painting or drawing, irrespective of artistic quality. | A repeat pattern or print is protected by copyright as soon as it is created, however simple. |
| Copyright duration (GOV.UK) | Copyright in artistic works usually lasts 70 years after the author’s death. | “Vintage” and archive designs are often still protected. |
| CDPA 1988, s.51 | Making an article from a design document is not a copyright infringement where the design is of shape or configuration, but that rule does not apply to surface decoration. | Copyright in a print can still be enforced against fabric and garments printed with it, which is why print claims reach brands. |
| CDPA 1988, s.213(3)(c) | UK unregistered design right does not subsist in surface decoration. | Prints rely on copyright, supplementary unregistered design right and registration, not on UK design right. |
| Supplementary unregistered design right (GOV.UK) | Gives 3 years’ protection, from first public disclosure, to the appearance of a product in the UK, covering its colours, texture, materials and ornamentation. | New prints shown at trade fairs and online are protected in their first seasons. |
| Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1988, reg. 8 | Visible parts of permanent covers on domestic upholstered furniture must pass the match test in Schedule 5, Part I. No one may supply cover fabric they know or have reason to believe will be used for that purpose unless it passes. | Fabric suppliers and the consultants advising them are inside the rules, not just furniture makers. |
| Usually covered by PI | Often excluded or limited | Needs a different policy |
|---|---|---|
| Claims that a print or pattern you sold infringes another’s copyright or design right, where the policy extends to IP | Knowing copying, including reworking a design you knew was protected | Fabric or finished goods you manufacture and sell that injure someone (product liability) |
| Client losses from negligent fabric, finish or performance advice | Fire safety work, where a broad exclusion has been added to the wording | Stock, samples or archive textiles lost or damaged (contents or stock cover) |
| Errors in licensing or exclusivity records that cause a client loss | Warranties that a fabric will pass any test, regardless of care taken | Recalling finished products (product recall cover) |
| Breach of confidence, such as sharing a client’s unreleased colour palette | Disputes over your fees or design sale prices | Injury at trade fairs and studio visits (public liability) |
| Defence costs, including expert textile testing evidence | Claims you were aware of before the policy started | Theft or breakdown of looms, printers and studio equipment (equipment cover) |
What a policy pays depends on its wording and on the insurer accepting your proposal. If you hold or buy archive textiles to rework, tell the insurer: it is a common source of copying allegations.
For a textile consultant, the clearest legal line in the job is the fire safety of domestic upholstered furniture. Get the cover fabric wrong and a client can face a range it cannot sell.
Under regulation 8, the visible parts of a permanent cover on upholstered furniture containing filling must pass the match test in Part I of Schedule 5, and invisible parts must pass Part III. There is an alternative for covers made of a “relevant material”, defined as at least 75% by weight of cotton, flax, viscose, modal, silk or wool and not coated with polyurethane, where an interliner that passes the Schedule 3 test sits between the cover and the furniture. The regulation also applies to anyone supplying cover fabric they know or have reason to believe will be used for these purposes.
OPSS guidance explains that amending regulations in force from 30 October 2025 removed certain baby and young children’s products from scope, removed the requirement for a display (swing) label on new products, and extended the time limit for bringing proceedings from 6 to 12 months. The permanent label requirement remains. A further consultation, which closed on 23 June 2026, proposed comprehensive reform, including new requirements based on a smoulder test and less use of chemical flame retardants. The government is analysing responses, so check the current position before you advise.
Many PI wordings now carry fire safety exclusions written with buildings and cladding in mind. Make sure yours does not also catch flammability advice on furnishing fabrics. See fire safety and cladding exclusions in PI.
No regulator sets a PI limit for textile designers or consultants. The limit usually comes from a brand’s supplier terms, a furniture retailer’s consultancy agreement or a tender. Base it on the largest exposure your work feeds into: a print running across a whole season’s range, or a fabric specified for every sofa in a collection.
Read the requirement closely. If a client asks for a limit on an “each and every claim” basis, an aggregate policy of the same size may not comply.
PI is claims-made, so it is the policy in force when a claim is made that responds. Print copyright lasts for decades, and a design sold years ago can still prompt a claim when a brand reorders it or a rights holder finds it online. If you retire, close the studio or stop consulting, keep run-off cover in place for past designs and advice. See run-off cover explained.
A complete proposal gets better terms than a bare one, and a broker can only present what you tell us. Have these ready:
Speak to a broker
PI for textile designers and consultants, placed by a named broker
Start the online proposal and save it as you go, or leave your number and a named broker will call you back, usually the same working day.
Apex Insurance Brokers is an independent insurance broker based in Bristol, established in 2009 and authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. We are not tied to one insurer: we work with over 30 markets, including Lloyd’s syndicates through wholesale brokers, and every client has a named broker who handles the placement, mid-term changes, certificates for clients and the renewal.
If you sell or license designs to businesses, or advise them on fabrics, yes. A print alleged to copy another design, or a fabric that fails a test or in use, can cost a client its stock and legal fees. PI pays the sums you are liable for and the cost of your defence, subject to the policy terms, and should include intellectual property infringement.
No. No law requires textile designers or consultants to hold PI. In practice fashion brands, furniture retailers, mills and contract suppliers often require it in their supplier or consultancy terms, sometimes with a minimum limit and proof of cover before they buy a design or accept advice.
Yes. A print or pattern is an artistic work, protected by copyright automatically and irrespective of artistic quality. Supplementary unregistered design right also protects its appearance for 3 years from disclosure. UK unregistered design right does not apply to surface decoration, so prints rely on copyright, that supplementary right and any registration.
In most cases, provided the wording extends to IP infringement and the copying was not deliberate. It should defend you and meet any settlement, subject to the terms, including claims passed on by brands that used the print. Reworking a design you knew was protected is commonly excluded, so check the rights status of archive sources first.
It should, as professional advice, but check for fire safety exclusions added to many PI wordings with buildings in mind. Tell your insurer you advise on upholstery flammability, because cover fabrics for UK domestic upholstered furniture must generally pass the match test under the Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1988.
Dated sketches and digital files showing how the design developed, the sources you used and where they came from, licences or purchase records for archive material, and a clear record of who bought each print and on what terms. These show independent creation and help your insurer defend the claim quickly.
Apex arranges professional indemnity insurance for textile designers and consultants across the UK. Tell us about your work and we’ll find cover that fits. Or call 0117 325 0027.
Start your PI proposal Call 0117 325 0027Apex Insurance Brokers Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Registered in England and Wales, company number 07014570. This page is general information, not advice on your individual circumstances. Cover is always subject to the insurer’s acceptance and the policy terms, and this page does not guarantee that cover will be available or on what terms.
