84 With the expansion of global markets emerges the challenges of finding solutions when copying is discovered on social media and online platforms. It can be daunting discovering knock offs and even worse, knowing what to do. Whatever your design sector, content is king and more importantly, your content. This is all underpinned by intellectual property, which needs to be protected. Did you know that nearly 20 per cent of UK SMEs have fallen victim to counterfeit product sales, amounting to severe financial losses for 93 per cent of them. Moreover, an astounding £13.6 billion worth of fake goods infiltrated Britain in 2020, causing legitimate businesses to lose sales totalling £9 billion. The questions you need to find answers to include: • Are you noticing any online threats against your brand? • Are people using your images without your express permission? • Are they using your registered trademark? • Are your registered design rights being infringed? • Are there sellers, not authorised by you, selling your products? If the answer is ‘yes’ to any of the above, help is at hand. ACID has recently formed a fantastic new partnership with Snapdragon Monitoring; a renowned online brand protection and reputation management specialist, aimed at safeguarding design businesses from the perils of counterfeits and intellectual property (IP) infringements. All ACID members will receive a free brand check and 15 per cent discount on Snapdragon’s fees. Offering guidance and advice The collaboration between ACID and SnapDragon aims to combat these issues by offering guidance, advice, and technical monitoring to protect assets. Leveraging SnapDragon’s innovative AI platform, Swoop, SMEs can continually scour the web to detect brand threats, infringements on registered and unregistered IP rights, and counterfeit product listings. They can then take swift action to remove these threats before they damage sales, brand reputation, and even customer safety. Below are a selection of tops tips and advice to combat online infringement. What is a Take down Notice (TDN) A TDN is a notice submitted to online hosts in response to allegations that the content that is advertised on its platform is in breach of its terms and conditions. The following are notes of differences for each platform: • Facebook, Instagram, Twitter each use a varied tick box form for users to report a violation of their IP rights • Facebook & Instagram Takedown Notice Copyright or Trademark owners can report a violation of IP rights through one of the online forms. You require – basic information about Online design Dids Macdonald, CEO of Anti Copying in Design (ACID) looks at online design theft, and gives some indepth top tips about what you can do about it…
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