Every year the Furniture Makers Company, the City of London Livery for the furnishings industry, sponsors a unique three-week programme where aspiring young people are given the opportunity to visit and understand all areas of the furniture industry, including materials, designing, manufacturing, pricing, marketing, sales, customer service and the importance of intellectual property. The initiative, now in its fifth successful year is called the Young Professional Industry Experience (YPIE).

Anti Copying in Design (ACID) includes a mini IP Masterclass to YPIE participants delivered by its ACID Affiliate Lawyers to ensure that they not only understand the basic elements of intellectual property (IP) law but learn the fundamentals of creating a proactive IP strategy, essential for all brands whether micro or macro.

This year’s outstanding IP essay was written by Emily Nickless, Digital Manager of Parker Knoll who wins a free ACID membership for her employer, a magnum of champagne and the 2019 ACID IP Essay Award Certificate. A copy of the article will appear in the annual Furniture Makers’ Austin Friar and in the ACID hard copy newsletter.

Read the award-winning essay here.

Dids Macdonald, OBE., CEO of Anti Copying in Design & Master of the Furniture Makers’ Company said, “Emily’s essay demonstrated not only a keen understanding of the importance of IP generally but translated this learning into the key aspects of the Parker Knoll brand whose awareness of brand protection is paramount. The threats through intellectual property infringement cannot be underestimated and it is essential that these are not threatened but protected to ensure growth.

I would like to thank our three legal affiliates Gavin Llewellyn of Stone King, Sarah Merrifield of Boult Wade Tennant and Liveryman Kelly Hudson of McDaniel & Co for their fascinating input and expertise they bring to the ACID mini IP Master Class.”