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From the Newsdesk

David Le Versha

Find out how David Le Versha utilises his ACID Membership Benefits to support his IP Rights!

 

When did you first start creating your products/designs? 

After a transition from architectural stained glass work during the 1990’s, I began designing and making iron garden furniture. Working mostly in a traditional manner (to meet demand for antique garden items), I created original and unique items rather than reproducing old patterns.

Did you have any knowledge of intellectual property at that time? 

At the time, although I was aware that some kind of rights existed, I knew it was costly and risky to tackle copyists. One or two designs I drew and photographed and sent copies to myself by registered post, as a simple means of retaining some dateable proof, now I use the ACID Copyright & Design Databank.

Which ACID Membership services have you used and how have you benefitted from being a member?I have only recently joined ACID and now use the ACID Logo on my products and website to make everyone aware.

Most people seem surprised to discover that copying is illegal. A lot of people assume that I have copied my products from early examples, so the use of the logo is even more important, to inform them otherwise. I have also started to upload new designs to the ACID Copyright & Design Databank before offering them for sale.

Have you brought anything new to the marketplace recently that you would like to share? There are some new designs which were shown at The Harrogate Flower Show, 20-23rd April 2017, including a new mobile greenhouse and some new chairs.

The Harrogate Flower Shows are organised by the North of England Horticultural Society. All profits from the shows are returned to the charity and used to promote gardening and horticulture in the North of England.

What is the best aspect of ACID Membership for your business?Firstly, being able to display the ACID logo on my work gives me great confidence without having to verbally warn people. Especially when they show a more then passing  interest in construction and dimensions.

Secondly, being able to file designs with ACID means that obtainable proof exists and hopefully copying (as in the case of the chairs I designed for Anthropologie) can in the future be tackled.

What advice would you offer to a new designer?

Join ACID (the cost is surprisingly reasonable), and file all designs before showing them to anyone. Never assume that, just because creating a unique design may be easy for you that it’s not special and a potential source of easy profit, through copying, for someone else.

I have a lot of personal experience of this with several of my designs still being manufactured without my permission or approval, some of them on a mass scale. Worse still is the inevitable low standard of cheap copied work that I do not wish to be attributed to me.David Le Versha Website

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IP - Protect it or forget it!
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