ACID Ambassador Dr Frederick Mostert ACID’s Chief legal counsel Nick Kounoupias and ACID’s CEO Dids Macdonald recently held further constructive talks with UK IPO’s John Alty to present the rationale behind ACID’s claim for design rights to be brought in line with copyright and trade marks.ACID’s argument is based on the fact that copyright is a property right subsisting inter alia in “artistic works” – see Section 1(1) (a) CDPA and Design right is a property right subsisting in original designs (S.213 (1) CDPA). ACID believes that copyright and design rights are exactly the same type of legal right and should be treated similarly. ACID further argues the fact that copyright infringement is in certain circumstances a criminal offence (see S.198 CDPA).
These crimes are punishable by up to ten years imprisonment. Infringement of design right is not a criminal offence and can be dealt with by way of civil proceedings only and we believe that this gives rise to anomalies and inequality of treatment
The Alliance Against IP Theft has placed ACID’s lobbying issues in its main strategy for 2011+
• Design right to have parity with copyright
• Increase in exemplary damages for IP infringement
Dids Macdonald said, “We have provided a compelling rationale and now that we have full backing from the influential Alliance Against IP Theft, I feel that this will be a positive step forward in ensuring that Andrew Gower’s recommendations to the UKIPO for parity in IP rights will be nearer reality. It is long overdue for the design industry. Our next step is to present our case to IP Minister Baroness Wilcox.”
A full rationale from Nick Kounoupias can be viewed here.
