ACID needs a minute of your time to enter our quiz to provide much needed understanding of the disparity between copyright and design rights creators.

It will only take a minute and you could win a £250 voucher and a trip to a Westminster reception on British IP Day on 29^th June by taking part in our true or false competition. Enter now.

For over two decades, ACID has consistently raised awareness about the need for stronger design law reinforced by cost and time effective redress if infringement occurs or, in plain language, when someone steals your designs for themselves! IP infringement really is just a sanitised word for theft, so it is time that Government and policy makers put some real ballast into protecting designers’ intellectual property, more so as we emerge from the pandemic. Those within our UK creative industries are world leaders and if we are to “Build Back Better!” this will include creating intellectual property through new designs as a positive force for growth with the right protection in place.

Government needs evidence to introduce criminal provisions for unregistered design infringement and this is where you can play your part.

Contributing to this survey will provide us with some valuable information/statistics we can use in our continuing campaign to seek better design laws, better enforcement and press for IP parity for designers with copyright creators.  For example, why should a song writer, author or artist have stronger intellectual property rights than a furniture or lighting designer?

Copyright creators benefit from protection for life plus 70 years, designers considerably less. Currently, designers who rely on unregistered design rights do not benefit from criminal sanctions against the worst offenders, copyright creators do. Now that we have emerged post-Brexit, UK designers, too, are at a real disadvantage with the loss of automatic protection in EU27 leaving them more vulnerable to IP theft. Seeking Government clarity on simultaneous publication between the UK and EU is also a priority.

The competition is not positioned as a right or wrong answer but merely to establish a level of understanding about IP, design and current laws/information.

For example, “The intentional infringement of a copyright work is a criminal offence”, True or False?

There is a £250 voucher for the winner and two £50 vouchers for the runners up which will be picked at random. The winner will be invited to a parliamentary reception at Westminster on 29th June 2021. Closing date is 21 June.

Supporting our campaign really does work, in 2014 the intentional infringement of a registered design was made a criminal offence punishable by up to 10 years and this was a direct result of ACID spearheading a strong campaign. This has noticeably provided a deterrent against IP theft. Now we need to complete the job and ensure there are criminal provisions for the intentional infringement of an unregistered design. Why? Because the majority of UK designers rely on unregistered design rights.

How can you take part and support us? Right here!