ACID is delighted to announce it has joined the Alliance Against IP theft – a national body set up in 1998, the Alliance Against Intellectual Property (IP) Theft is a UK-based coalition of trade associations and enforcement organisations with an interest in ensuring intellectual property rights receive the protection they need and deserve.

With a combined turnover of over £250 billion, their members include representatives of the film/TV and video, music, games, business software industries, branded manufactured goods, publishers, retailers and designers.The Alliance is concerned with ensuring intellectual property rights are valued in the UK, and that a robust, efficient legislative and regulatory regime exists which enables these rights to be properly protected. www.allianceagainstiptheft.co.uk

ACID lobby shares many of the same objectives as the Alliance Against IP Theft and looks forward to contributing to achieving these goals which include the following:

• There is still no effective system of damages in the UK able to act a true deterrent to IP infringement;
• The government continues to delay in addressing the problem of car boot sales awash with fake goods;
• IP crime does not feature high enough on priorities of local authorities meaning trading standards do not always receive the funding they need;
• Companies still struggle in receiving redress when victims of copycat packaging.

ACID’s lobbying objectives also include the introduction of a new law of unlawful imitation and addressing the disparity of design right and copyright owners. Continued pressure both through the Alliance and through our own efforts we will prioritise on the problem of improved damages to provide a real disincentive to those that seek the fast track to market through blatant copying. This remains a high ACID priority.