Gift Focus - Jan/Feb 2018 (Issue 105)

ACID’s CEO Dids Macdonald investigates whether exhibitions are inspirational supermarkets for copyists As if launching a product or bringing a new range to market doesn’t have enough challenges, the copying and counterfeiting of products has developed into one of the most insidious forms of crime across all design disciplines, so it’s even more important to ensure you have a proactive intellectual property strategy to help protect and prevent knock offs. Sending a clear message of deterrence to those who go deliberately to exhibitions to copy and steal ideas is an important element in any business strategy. Crime fighting Did you know that in the UK stealing Intellectual Property is considered a more serious criminal offence than stealing someone’s physical property? The maximum prison sentence for infringing copyright works, trade marks or registered designs is 10 years and an unlimited fine can also be ordered. However, the maximum prison sentence for theft is seven years! Hopefully this is a stark warning that IP laws have changed and over the last 20 years, Parliament, and the Courts, have begun, perhaps belatedly, to recognise the devastation caused to businesses by the theft and counterfeiting of their intellectual property. Following considerable and consistent lobbying from Anti Copying in Design (ACID) over many years, deliberate infringement of a registered design only became a criminal offence in 2014, punishable by 10 years imprisonment. This is good news, but the over-riding objective must be prevention and here are one or two very simple things you can do to protect your designs: Exhibitions can provide an opportunity to get in front of genuine design buyers, so taking a few steps to ensure you protect any new designs against being copied will pay dividends. Start by being “IP SAVVY” – know your © from your design right and your trade marks from your patents! Proof of design ownership is critical It’s not rocket science! Make sure you have a design audit trail from the seed of an idea to marketplace. Signed and dated drawings do the trick. Better still; register your designs in the UK or EU. Or, like the majority of designers, if you rely on unregistered rights send them to the ACID Copyright and Design Databank giving you independent evidence of their existence on the date of receipt. In any dispute it’s necessary to provide evidence of ownership, originality and date of creation. The ACID Databank is supported by the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU). Do you allow unauthorised photography? If you do, DON’T! Remember with phone cameras, your designs can be sent across the world in seconds and mass-produced before you even pack up your stand! So take control of who photographs your work, ask Original or fake – innovation vs imitation 202 giftfocus