For those of you that follow Rachael Taylor’s blog and her social media channels, you will be aware that Rachael is an official member of the official ACID Advisory Council. Lead by CEO Dids Macdonald, OBE and her team, ACID have shown incredible support throughout Rachael’s own career, standing by her during her own legal battles (including the highly publicised battles against one of the UK’s largest retailers).
Passionate about defending the intellectual properties of artists like Rachael, ACID continue to support and provide council for other creatives out there who experience copying and infringement in the design industry. A recent case which ACID has shared with Make it in Design was between Fiesta Studios Limited and a competitor who had duplicated an exclusively licensed design. Below is the informative press release from ACID detailing how they were able to help resolve the infringement issues for Fiesta Studios.
If you’re a designer who is concerned about copying in design, be sure to know your intellectual property rights! Head over to the ACID website for more information about protecting your work and knowing when and how to take action!
Anti Copying in Design (ACID) members Fiesta Studios Limited, leading distributors of artistic giftware, have successfully resolved a copyright dispute arising from this year’s Spring Fair over the sale of infringing goods through ACID, assisted by their legal affiliate, McDaniel & Co. Fiesta Studios MD, Andy Kingston, said, “As an ACID Accredited Exhibition show, we were supported by on the spot presence to intervene, take action and deliver a result, a huge benefit to us in the protection of our intellectual property rights.” Fiesta became aware that one of its competitors was selling tiles which depicted images for which Fiesta held the exclusive licence. Initial requests, asking the competitor to remove the goods from the view of the public and discontinue sales at Spring Fair, unfortunately proved unsuccessful. This left Fiesta with little choice but to press ahead with legal action.
The Original Tile Design:
The Copied Tile Design:
During the exhibition, Fiesta Studios were able to provide evidence to YH Arts Ceramics Ltd confirming that Fiesta Studios were the exclusive licensee to these images. Senior Associate IP solicitor Kelly Hudson of McDaniel & Co said, “This compelling evidence proved to YH Arts Ceramics that the products which they were selling were the same as Fiesta’s tiles and countered the argument that they were independently created. As an exclusive licensee, Fiesta held the sole right to sell the tiles featuring these images and this gave them the right to take legal action against YH Arts Ceramics for selling the tiles without obtaining prior permission.
ACID CEO Dids Macdonald, OBE commenting on the case said, “The dispute was resolved following the exhibition without the need to go to Court and the outcome was a success for Fiesta for three reasons;Fiesta secured payment of compensation for the infringement as well as their legal costs which totalled over £9,000. The competitor also undertook to destroy all the infringing goods by sending them to Fiesta. Finally, Fiesta also took this issue to Ascential, the ACID Accredited Exhibition Organisers of Spring and Autumn Fair, some weeks ago and, to date, we are awaiting their decision as to whether YH Arts Ceramics Ltd. will be allowed to exhibit at Ascential events in the future. Infringement is clearly against their articulated policy as an ACID Accredited Organiser, which requires a zero tolerance of IP theft. Calling all design-led exhibitors, what do you think?”
ALL ABOUT ACID
ACID is trade association for designers and manufacturers with a diverse membership ranging from individuals to multinationals and spanning many industry sectors. The organisation is committed to fighting design theft and lobbying Parliament for design law reform. Members have many free benefits including access to a specialist intellectual property legal hotline for initial free advice and, if relying on unregistered Community or UK design rights, have unlimited use of the ACID Design Databank to help protect their intellectual property (IP) Rights. ACID’s key objectives are protection, deterrence and education, working towards a safer commercial trading framework enabling originators to fully exploit and maximise their IP rights. Contact: Dids Macdonald tel.0845 6443617 e-mail: [email protected] web: www.acid.uk.com
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