Peter Hunt, CEO of the Lighting Association with Dids Macdonald, CEO of ACID.

At a fantastic exhibition of the best in new and exciting light design held at The Annual Lighting Association AGM at Rugby, ACID sponsored the four winners with the presentation of free ACID support and membership. The winners also received a Safe Pitch kit designed to help form collaborative design relationships with commercial partners. The Safe Pitch kit includes several industry standard agreements and guidelines for responding to pitches or tenders. Loic De Buic responded to his award saying “The one year membership of ACID is really a nice thing to get, I really value the benefits that it gives me and I think I will stay a member after this year.”

This was the first event to consolidate the relationship between the Lighting Association and ACID as trade association partners. The Lighting Association also hosted a Design Protection seminar where Dids Macdonald, ACID’s CEO and Jo Alderson from ACID Accredited law firm Hammonds outlined the basis of a sound IP strategy and offered help and guidelines to those wishing to protect and exploit their intellectual property. Peter Hunt, incoming CEO said, “We are committed to supporting bright new talent within the lighting sector and to raising awareness of UK design and protection. This is the first event of many with ACID which we hope will help those within the lighting industry to develop their own IP strategies.”

The award winners are shown below receiving their prizes from Bruce Davidson, President of the Lighting Association.

Student Lighting Designer 2008 Loic De Buck winner with his ‘AirLight’ design.

Energy Efficient Student Lighting Designer 2008 Luke Dixon – ‘Switch’

Second Place Laura Hibbert – ‘Cara’

Third Place Jason Cooper – ‘Ceejay’

Phillips award Daniel Ward – ‘Lloyd The Bankers Light’

Highly Commended Chooi-leng Tan – ‘Pouring Light’

Highly Commended Christopher Harkin – ‘Honeycomb’

ACID, (Anti Copying in Design) has formed a trade association partnership with the IGI (International Wallcovering Manufacturers Association) to raise the profile and value of Intellectual Property among its members through education, support and deterrence.

This move is part of an on-going campaign by ACID to work alongside trade organisations pan industry. Through IP education on how to protect your intellectual property effectively and how to integrate IP as part of a corporate or marketing strategy – ACID will advise IGI members on creating a safe trading environment by safeguarding their IP equity when tendering or pitching for business. ACID will also work with IGI on strengthening respect for intellectual property within corporate responsibility. Says Geraldine De Limelette, Secretary General, IGI,  ‘We have spent the last year working closely with ACID to promote the value of IP within membership. As an ACID trade association partner we can now offer our members the depth of expertise and experience ACID has in fighting design theft while helping our members develop individual IP strategies to underpin their commercial objectives’. Adds Dids Macdonald, CEO of ACID, ‘The wallcoverings industry is the 5th trade organisation to take advantage of ACID’s Trade Associations module. The module is bespoke according to the market sector and includes a discounted group membership fee, seminars, tailored IP advice through regular web and newsletter features, standard tender agreements, and IP clinics plus over 30 ACID membership benefits including IP legal advice and the use of the free ACID design bank. I strongly advise any trade association who is committed to design protection and IP education to talk to ACID’.

ACID, (Anti Copying in Design) has formed a trade association partnership with the Lighting Association (LA) to help raise the profile and value of IP among its members.

This move is part of an on-going campaign by ACID to actively support trade organisations pan industry. Through IP education – how to protect your designs and how to integrate IP as part of a corporate or marketing strategy – ACID will advise LA members on creating a safe trading environment by safeguarding their design equity when tendering or pitching for business.

Says Peter Hunt, CEO of the LA, “We are committed to raising awareness of UK design and protecting it within the lighting industry. As both a designer and manufacturer I am acutely aware of the issues surrounding IP theft and I am committed to encouraging all our members to become IP aware. We are delighted to be joining forces with ACID – now we can offer our members a real chance to develop their own IP strategies.”

Adds Dids Macdonald, CEO of ACID, ‘The design and interiors industry is supported by influential trade organisations including the LA – the second to take advantage of ACID’s Trade Associations module. The module is bespoke according to the market sector and includes a discounted group membership fee, seminars, tailored IP advice through regular web and newsletter features, standard tender agreements, and IP clinics plus over 30 ACID membership benefits including IP legal advice and the use of the free ACID design bank. I strongly advise any trade association who is committed to design protection and IP education to talk to ACID”.

ACID will be present at the Lighting Association Awards on June 18th 2008 and will start its series of IP seminars with ‘DESIGN – Protect it, or Forget it!’