Intellectual Property Protection

Background

The creative industries are worth £93 billion per annually to the UK. The United Kingdom is regarded as a global leader of design in the interior design sector. Much investment into research and development for commercial products, ideas for commercial business is invested to bring a product or business idea to market.

Through the high standards of design, British craftsmanship and business innovation that the UK is renowned for, consumers recognise and are willing to pay for the additional value a British design creates.

In the past decade, through trade agreements with France, Italy, much of Europe, Commonwealth Countries and Gulf States; SBID has campaigned on IP protection as a core value for the interior design industry.

The Problem

Currently, there is no effective protection against the theft of ideas in the field of interior design. IP law has been previously seen as messy, complex and confusing and where specified to interior design, almost impossible to pursue compensation.

The issue is one of stolen ideas of the owner/creator after commercial presentation without consent or a fee. This could typically be the theft of ideas created in an interior designed space or product. This has not only been an ongoing problem for business investors in all creative sectors of industry and manufacture, but it is a problem for the consumer who are put at risk, completely unaware when they purchase a product that looks the same on the outside, to find a poorly manufactured copy without tested safety marques that causes untold damage to property.

Theft of IP not only steals the profit from the owner of the idea but in many cases it feeds criminality throughout the supply chain; workers with no alternative but to work long hours in sweatshops for low pay face menacing situations. Criminals of IP theft go on to manufacture inferior products for a fraction of the cost – to a standard that falls far below health and safety standards, at a cost to the designer/owner and the global economy as a whole.

The Solution – The SBID IP Register

SBID have a corporate social responsibility to provide a route for all business enterprises to help protect the supply chain where it is vulnerable.

Developed in association with TM-Eye, SBID have introduced an International IP register which is linked to surveillance, seizure, prosecution and imprisonment of identified perpetrators of IP law.

With the central aim of creating a platform committed to providing objective evidence, the SBID register will allow design owners to register their ideas from inception, giving them the confidence and support they need to bring a criminal charge against perpetrators who replicate the idea without permission.

Through a thorough process of identifying the problems faced in interior design, SBID has monitored the outcome of growth, success and loss along with the facilitators of criminality. This initiative differs from all other IP registrations and destinations because it has identified and provided the solution for the missing link; enforcing punishment for such criminality. Ultimately this initiative provides a route to recovery or prevention. This will bring interior design in line with the fashion and music industries as the creative industries come together to protect the commercial value of brand IP.

With seven years of research, review and sector testing in IP protection, TM-Eye have achieved a  100% success conviction rate with 261 successful criminal prosecutions of IP theft in luxury goods, fashion and jewellery. With their assistance, interior design will now successfully address IP theft.

SBID Accredited Designers can register their idea quickly and easily to ensure Intellectual Property Protection.

Registration can give you the following benefits:

If you’re an interior designer, you’re investing a lot of time and money researching and creating either a design concept or a physical product for your projects. If your creative idea is copied, your intellectual property has been breached. The SBID IP Register is a management tool for designers to ensure their work is legally protected and will notify you when the protections expire.

In the case of a breach of IP, the register allows TM-Eye to quickly find the relevant registration of the design to pursue an investigation. At the moment TM-Eye can spend months tracking down where designs have been registered and the required associated statements due to designers often forgetting details of the specified registration; the register will therefore ensure there is a complete audit trail.

Registration for SBID Members: £125 +VAT

To register your Intellectual Property, simply contact us including as much information as possible. This will then be added to the database for TM-Eye to review.

SBID IP Partners include: