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Trade organisation ACID (Anti Copying in Design) has announced the appointment of Rob Law, managing director of Magmatic and the originator of the Trunki ride-on children’s suitcase, to its group of ACID ambassadors.
He joins designers such as Sebastian Conran and Kevin McCloud in supporting the preservation of design originality, ethics and respect for intellectual property.
Earlier this year the Supreme Court has dismissed a registered design infringement case brought by Magmatic against PMS International. In a judgment handed down on March 9, the Court ruled that the European design registration of Trunki, was not infringed by PMS’ lookalike product.
According to ACID, during the past three years PMS had produced its own very similar design which it had admitted was inspired by Trunki. The judgment follows a three-year campaign by Trunki to uphold a July 2013 High Court ruling that Trunki’s European design registration was infringed after it was reversed by the Court of Appeal in March 2014.
On being appointed as an ACID ambassador, Rob Law said, “We need basic design protection in the UK and ACID is campaigning tirelessly to enhance the rights for designers.
“I’m proud to offer my support as they continue to lobby to improve design law and help creative industries keep their competitive advantage.
“As a designer and entrepreneur, we all dream our designs will become commercially successful. Once they are, it’s a sad fact of life that they get copied. ACID supports designers through what is often a traumatic time to inform and lobby for better rights.”
ACID ceo Dids Macdonald commented: “No-one knows more than Rob how heart-breaking it is when one’s ideas are taken blatantly and the law, as it stands, does not appear to support him and others like him. So I very much welcome his advocacy in the continuing fight for fair competition and a strong IP [Intellectual Property] framework which will support design champions – something which is in the DNA of the UK, and about which we excel.”
Rob Law, managing director of Magmatic
