Managing Directors of ACID member companies Lee Broom, Talking Tables and ThisisNessie joined artists and brand owners at a lunch at Westminster organised by the Alliance for Intellectual Property of which ACID is a member and Dids Macdonald is Vice Chair last week to discuss their IP frustrations with parliamentarians around blatant design infringement both on and offline and concerns about Brexit and design protection.

Duncan Maclay said, “ThisIsNessie is not registering their new product designs because we and many other designers produce so many that it becomes prohibitively expensive.” Former IP Minister Baroness Neville-Rolfe stressed the importance of maintaining influence in EU to strengthen regulations there as these will be transposed to UK in 2019. However, she acknowledged that Unregistered EU rights were an exception.

ACID CEO Dids Macdonald said, “Post-Brexit copyright will be about nuanced changes made to existing protection. But for design, Brexit offers an existential threat because of the possible loss of EU laws. UK designers will be severely disadvantaged if they lose EU unregistered design rights, on which the majority rely.EU design laws, both registered and unregistered, protect the individual character of a design in particular as they relate to the shape, texture, contours, lines, colours, ornamentation and materials of the design. UK UDR protects only the shape and configuration of a design. Entire design sectors such as fashion, lighting and furniture rely on the EU scope to protect their 3D designs; UK law alone cannot protect 3D designs whose individual character is defined by shape, texture, contours, lines, colours, ornamentation or materials.”

Dids continued, “If these EU laws are not transposed into UK law post Brexit, design protection for many design sectors will be lost. Accordingly, this is a potentially calamitous issue for many design sectors All present also heard the argument that ACID is pressing Government to introduce a new law which mirrors the protection afforded by EU unregistered design, replacing existing UK Unregistered design to put UK designers on a level playing field with their EU counterparts in terms of IP protection.”

Mark McCormack, MD of Talking Tables said, ““This year we have had to deal with a number of competitors selling copied versions of our successful table top game, Prosecco Pong. The challenges of copycat product appearing on Amazon, EBay, Etsy and Ali-Baba continue. Having created Talking Tables in 1999 we now employ 60 people and our projected turnover is £16m. If this level of IP infringement continues this could have a negative impact on jobs and job security.”

Charles Rudgard MD Lee Broom said, “We have six ongoing cases of alleged design theft at the moment which is very frustrating. The Lee Broom collection features over 100 furniture, accessory and lighting products which are retailed in over 250 stores in 48 countries. Winning over 20 awards to date, including the Queens Award for Enterprise presented by Her Majesty the Queen, the past ten years have seen the brand grow at an unprecedented rate. Blatant and indiscriminate design theft must not be an inhibitor to our growth potential, or, for that matter the security of those with whom we work.”

In response to Duncan Maclay’s comments, “With rampant copying of our marquee and awarding winning product now going on the internet, the job security of our staff and their 40 or so children who depend on the income to support them financially is fundamentally at risk.”  MP Damian said that there must be some way for online platforms to act on infringing users much more quickly – government should look at how it can compel them to do that, as they must take responsibility for what users can buy and sell online.

The point was made from the floor that small & SME businesses simply cannot afford the inordinate time it takes to track down and take down.

The parliamentarians were clearly shocked at the brazenness of copying, from ‘ThisIsNessie’ drawings, Talking Table’s party products, Lee Broom lighting and furniture designs through to supermarket parasitic packaging and balloon products ripped off by Chinese factories and sold via Amazon warehouses under the FBA programme in the UK (which Amazon claims it cannot take responsibility for).

In looking to solutions Andrew Vickerstaff pointed to Germany which has a much broader “Unfair Competition” law covering much more to protect brands than any UK law. Dids Macdonald said, “I have been impressed by the speed with which infringing products can be removed on the spot from physical sale at exhibitions, for example. It is relatively easy to apply for and be granted an injunction the same day in Germany. Why not in the UK?”

Baroness Neville Rolfe summarised by saying, “It is clear that the online dimension is adding a substantial level of urgency to the IP issues faced by artists, designers and brand owners. In the context that changing the law can take a minimum of two years, she said that more must be done through compliance and responsibility from online platforms though acknowledged the difficulty within a global and international landscape.”

Next steps – ACID will liaise with those parliamentarians present, ask for questions to be tabled in the House of Commons and follow up with evidence to the All Party Parliamentary Group.

To view details about the potential loss of unregistered EU designs and a series of look alike and copy products see here.