Following many years of campaigning by Anti Copying In Design (ACID), the Government has launched a Designs Consultation, whose aim, says ACID, is a long-awaited opportunity to modernise Britain’s design protection system and cement the UK as one of the world's top destinations for design innovation and investment.
"Design is not only the golden thread running through the creative industries," the association continues, "but a catalyst in the other key growth areas in the Industrial Strategy.
"However, the majority of the two million people involved in design and design skills are lone, micro and SME and face numerous challenges, mainly from 'David versus Goliath' copying issues. The costs to take legal action are prohibitive – the time taken to pursue copyists is protracted (sometimes years) and the complexities of design law is often too difficult and time-consuming to navigate, not to mention the overall impact of all this on growth.
"The proposals in the consultation seek to address these challenges. This could lead to the most significant transformation of UK design protection in decades, modernising our framework for the digital age and ensuring it remains fit for the future."
ACID has collaborated with the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) over many years and agrees with the five principles prioritised – cost, validity, speed, choice and simplicity – and says feedback from its members is that the consistent unlawful acts of copycats taking the fast track to market erodes original design, causes significant loss of earnings, unimaginable stress and disincentivises innovation.
Dids Macdonald OBE, ACID’s chair and co-founder, says: “Evidence from the 2022 calls for views, subsequent questionnaire and 2025 survey reinforced the urgent need to help the UK’s lone, micro, or small, creative entrepreneurs (worth £100b to the UK’s GVA) protect their IP robustly with real deterrent measures. We welcome the Government’s recognition and the IPO’s engagement with ACID since the last major review in 2011.”
Nick Kounoupias, ACID’s chief counsel and director, says: “We very much welcome the Government acknowledging that the system needs reform. We are reassured that a positive outcome will provide a robust and accessible legal framework with adequate deterrent measures that thwart what is an increasing David and Goliath issue of repeated infringement, but this will require elevating design rights to an equivalent standing within the IP family of legal rights as the other IP rights so they are no longer consider a 'poor cousin' or a 'Cinderella right', epithets applied to design rights by many that should know better. Treating all IP infringement as theft would be a good starting point.”
Laura Newbold Breen, ACID’s CEO, adds: “I echo all these points and urge ACID members and the wider design community to connect with ACID in as many ways as you can so together we can respond to this huge opportunity to elicit change. Attend our design consultation webinars (to be announced shortly) where we can help you navigate the consultation questions and answer any of your queries. Most importantly, we need your case studies to demonstrate the effect of copycat battles and why most SMEs are currently not able to access cost effective enforcement. Follow us and/or get in touch to find out how you can do this.”
