Virtuoso Legal has become an ACID (Anti Copying in Design) legal affiliate team.
With offices in both Yorkshire and London, the specialist intellectual property firm will be providing advice to those working in the creative industries that wish to know how to identify their IP rights and protect their work.
A not-for-profit, membership trade organisation, ACID aims to help designers in the UK understand IP law in relation to their IP rights, ultimately helping them to protect their ideas and creations.
CEO Dids Macdonald OBE, has recognised that design theft has been a problem for many small design companies and independent creatives in the UK, which inspired the idea and motivation to create a roundtable of designers which evolved into ACID.
Today, ACID represents thousands of designers and provides education and training through seminars and workshops, while offering assistance to those exhibiting at trade shows. ACID Action successfully lobbies the government for improvements to IP and design law to provide designers and manufacturers with greater protection.
As part of Virtuoso Legal’s involvement with ACID, Virtuoso Legal’s IP experts will be offering free initial advice to ACID members and prospective members, helping them to identify and secure their IP needs, as well as protect their most important assets.
Philip Partington, a senior solicitor at Virtuoso Legal, said: “Sadly for many of the UK’s creatives, the story of David and Goliath rings too true. There are some 350,000 designers in the UK, most of which are SMEs, and we hear of so many cases where designs and work are ripped off by larger companies. In such instances, small design companies and independent creatives can feel powerless – but they can, and must, fight back.
“We’ve always been a nation of creatives and it’s vital we protect this industry and enable it to thrive not only in the UK but internationally too. The law is there to protect designers’ ideas, work, reputation and business – and together with ACID, we’re determined to help eradicate design theft.”
