The group are given access to all areas of the furniture industry supply chain, learning about raw materials and components, the complexity of manufacturing, buying criteria, pricing, marketing and merchandising, through to consumer law, after sales, customer service and why intellectual property is so integral to a brand whether micro or macro.

Nineteen leading industry companies open their doors to give the delegates an insight into their businesses including ACID – Anti Copying In Design – and on June 5 several of the best intellectual property lawyers in the UK gave their insight into intellectual property from registrations to licensing and what to do if you are copied to the basics of brand protection.

This is what the group wrote as their blog after the session:

Intellectual Property (IP) is Intangible property, or Property that comes from the mind. You can’t protect an idea, but you can protect the documented development of a concept, and features of a design. Understanding intellectual property rights is a way to protect a creative product.

There are some ways to protect intellectual property depending on the medium, including the following;

• Copyright (applies to 2D development only, automatically obtained)
• Design rights (supersedes copyright when concept becomes 3D, can be registered or un-registered)
• Patents (innovations which are new and take an inventive step, 25 years monopoly then public)
• Trademarks (Protection for unique identity for a company – valid for 10 years & renewable)

Ownership of your Intellectual property gives you the right to monopolise a concept, including producing and selling the item, selling the intellectual property rights, or licensing a third party to manufacture or sell the item. Licensing agreement contracts should state:

• Who owns the IP.
• Exclusivity of IP.
• An Exit strategy.
• Whether there are rights to subcontract.
• Duration of agreement.
• Licensing of future designs.
• Criteria to sustain quality and protect brand.
• Right to terminate.

Good housekeeping can go a long way to protecting Intellectual property. Concept generation and development should be clearly signed and dated, and filed away as evidence. Registering designs on the ACID design copyright and designs database is an additional way of proving date and ownership.

In the event of your IP being infringed, don’t react immediately. Gather as much proof and evidence as possible (eg. Ownership of IP, what territory, what date, is registration still valid, images of infringing product) before taking any action, and seek professional advice.

ACID CEO Dids Macdonald, OBE., commented, “I was impressed by the varied questions posed and how each of the YPIE group were so interested in IP. Hugest thanks to our wonderful IP specialists –  Jake Hayes – Briffa & Co., Tony Pluckrose- Boult Wade Tennant, Gavin Llewellyn – Stone King., Kelly Hudson – McDanials Law., Tom Priem – Sipara, Phil Partington – Virtuoso and Nick Kounoupias, ACID Chief Counsel and CEO and Founder of KounoupiasIP their enthusiastic and generous contribution to the day made it a real success”.

To view the presentation click here