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From the Newsdesk

ACID Extends a Huge Thank You to all Calls for Views on Design IP

[vc_row][vc_column width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”12204″ img_size=”full”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”3/4″][vc_column_text]ANTI COPYING IN DESIGN (ACID) SUBMISSION TO THE IPO CALL FOR VIEWS ON DESIGN IP 2022

Executive Summary

From iconic to every day, design is all around us, improving our lives, providing solutions, and influencing the way we live and work. Underpinned by the value of the intellectual property (IP) created, this is why IP matters to the design economy. Intellectual Property, creations of our minds, are increasingly crucial to the UK’s economic, cultural, social wellbeing – a national asset, especially in design. IP enriches our lives by providing us with work, solutions, and innovation. It is hard to think of a service, product, or activity which in some way does not depend on IP.

The design economy punches well above its weight and figures produced by the Design Council in 2018 confirmed strong growth over 3 years, creating £85.2bn for the UK economy to which 1.69 million designers or those with design skills contributed.

For over a decade, since the last Call for Views in 2012, UK designers have not been effectively supported by the UK Government with an IP framework that is fit for purpose. ACID has consistently provided evidence to support this reality, over many years. In our submission we articulate our concerns about post Hargreaves recommendations to Government that evidence to form policy decisions must be a two-way street.

Our submission identifies key areas necessary for the current reform of Design IP law and also the necessity to futureproof this vital part of the UK economy as well as providing a raft of easily achievable solution-led initiatives.

These key areas include addressing the disparity between design and other IP rights’ protection together with simplifying a difficult to understand and overly complex system. The impact on the UK’s design sector, mostly SME, is an increasing inability to enforce their IP rights. Currently, enforcement is cost and time prohibitive as well as being emotionally challenging. Tightening up regulation will play a key role in dissuading those legal practitioners who rely on complex laws to exploit and perpetuate legal correspondence, especially in David and Goliath challenges.

Simplification should not include introducing examination for registered designs which would be a retrograde step and achieve very little. What is important is that registered designs can be heard in a new and improved Small Claims Track System.

A lack of reciprocity for unregistered designs in the EU and question marks over simultaneous publication of designs in the UK and EU has left many designers with legal uncertainty. ACID has consistently called on Government to re-open discussions to provide clarity and solutions. Post-Brexit, UK design protection has been eroded as a result.

Government consistently reinforces the mantra that the UK has one of the best IP regimes in the world. Maybe this is true about the efficiency of the technical registrations’ framework, the counterfeiting & piracy intel hubs and/or for those with sufficient legal budgets. And if you are a songwriter, inventor, or trade mark owner, this may also be true, but it certainly isn’t the case if you are a designer. In the field of designs law enforcement, where David is the designer, Goliath usually triumphs, and litigation is the luxury of the few.

With the UK departure from the EU, there is a golden opportunity to look at IP design rights from scratch, putting designers first and considering overall what protection should be offered and how. All our evidence supports the fact that it would be chilling for innovation if the intentional infringement of a registered design is not made a crime to provide a strong deterrent. Providing a level playing field between those designers who rely on registered designs and those who rely on unregistered designs, (in line with copyright) is not only critical but fair.

But IP is more than the law, whilst the law should be fit for purpose to protect and enforce infringement effectively, there is a societal and moral issue which must be embraced in articulated corporate social responsibility about IP compliance, and ethics. It is hoped that government and others will put their full weight behind the soon to be launched ACID IP Charter, signatories of which comply with the principles of publicly declared IP respect.

You can read the full submission here.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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