Summary of and Background to the Act
3.The Act establishes a Scottish Register of Tartans, and requires a Keeper of the Register of Tartans to maintain and oversee the Register and new registrations, and sets down the process for registering new tartan designs in the Register.
4.The Act does this by:
	creating a publicly held and maintained register of tartans;
	setting up a system for registering new tartan designs;
	providing a statutory definition of tartan for the purposes of the operation of the Register;
	conferring on the Keeper of the Records of Scotland the functions of keeping and maintaining the Register and overseeing the registration of new tartan designs; and
	providing the Keeper with a power to charge for services provided in relation to the Register, such as registration of new tartans and provision of copy material from the Register.
5.Registration of a new tartan design will not confer any intellectual property rights such as copyright or design rights upon the person registering the tartan design. Nor will registration affect any existing intellectual property rights in such a tartan design. Intellectual property is a reserved matter under section C4 of Part II of Schedule 5 to the Scotland Act 1998.