87 ACID To find out more, visit www.acid.uk.com Sarah felt the only option left to them was to go to court. Before the court case was heard, B&M conceded, although they didn’t admit liability, they confirmed they would no longer sell the product - surprise, surprise! The last in the BBC’s copycat exposés was Christine Chau of Charlie Chau. Christine and her sister, Jenny, had designed a new way of creating quality, luxury dog beds and in doing so, they also researched and developed an extensive care booklet on how to wash and take care of their dog beds with detailed fabric information. When she discovered not only had the designs been copied but also the detailed care booklet, through access to the ACID legal affiliate scheme, she was able to get help and support from Niall Head-Rapson who issued them with a cease and desist letter. When this fell on deaf ears, Christine decided to follow IP specialist advice and take them to Court. The Judge decided the other company had infringed and ruled in favour of Christine’s copyright and passing off copyright works. The injunction means that Christine has a Court judgment against the company who will think twice before copying her again. ACID also blames those lawyers instructed by retail behemoths who are paid large sums to use the complexity of design law to stonewall any legal challenge and perpetuate litigation which is shameful. Part of our recommendations to Government will include a protocol to tighten up this insidious legal practice which is chilling to talented innovators and fuels a copycat culture which only leads to business uncertainty. It is also an unprofessional legal strategy. Lengthy and costly litigation is out of reach for most lone, micro and SME designers, many of whom provide the zeitgeist for tomorrow’s ‘must have’ products. Shame on you, those retailers who take the fast track to market by copying. But rest assured, it can take years to build up brands whether ethical or not and moments to destroy through unfavourable social media and we encourage all Davids who are copied by Goliaths to shout out, with caution! Never accuse anyone directly of copying and always rely on facts that you can substantiate. ACID will always help those with legally correct wording to those who want to take this type of social media action if they have been copied. ACID’s advice is to create a proactive IP strategy! 1) Simple tips such as don’t forget to keep accurate, signed and dated records of your design’s creation throughout all the prototype steps. 2) Register your designs, if possible, but also remember at ACID we have an IP Databank which holds thousands of copies of our members’ designs. This provides valuable third-party evidence should you need to prove you were the creator of your designs and when. 3) Through our ACID legal affiliates, ACID members can access initial free specialist advice and reduced fees. 4) Above all, keep positive and keep designing and don’t forget to call for help if you need it. Lastly, we have created an ACID IP Charter and we need all designers who support design and IP integrity to sign up and share, declaring promotion for IP ethics, compliance, and respect. When we get a critical mass then we will be exposing those who didn’t take up our offer to become signatories such as the buying director of Aldi. “Part of our recommendations to Government will include a protocol to tighten up this insidious legal practice which is chilling to talented innovators and fuels a copycat culture which only leads to business uncertainty. It is also an unprofessional legal strategy. Lengthy and costly litigation is out of reach for most lone, micro and SME designers, many of whom provide the zeitgeist for tomorrow’s ‘must have’ products.”
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