In this report Anti-Copying in Design (ACID) draw attention to the specific success of the design industry and the challenges designers now face in an active increasingly challenging enforcement environment. ACID claim design is the fastest growing sector within the burgeoning creative industries, in the 5 years between 2008 and 2013 the design sector grew by 34%. In the UK today 350,000 people are employed in the design industry.
The enforcement of rights is the footing upon which the value of IP-intensive industries rests. Without the security offered by effective legal frameworks, without the cooperation of law enforcement bodies, government agencies, industry-specific trade groups, business associations and individual IP-intensive companies, it would be not be possible to guarantee the continued success of the UK’s burgeoning creative businesses.
A key finding of the IPO’s 2015/16 survey of IP awareness amongst UK businesses was the fact that 96% of companies had not valued their intellectual property. Without an understanding of the value of IP, the scope and scale of IP crime becomes harder to characterise. Further research reveals additional challenges. Even today, many members of the public and business communities are not merely misled and defrauded by IP criminals (without necessarily understanding the nature of their offences), they may be complicit in IP crime themselves. Only 28 per cent of companies check to make sure they are not infringing others IP rights.
Actually the report addresses many fields of industries where copyright protection and its enforcement are vital for economy and business in a whole. For example, what concerns entertainment content like music – for BPI a website blocking has become a key part of its content protection strategy. Site blocking is proving a successful strategy, and the longer the blocks are in place, the more effective they tend to be. The latest data available shows that traffic to sites blocked for over one year has reduced by an average of around 80%; with traffic to sites blocked for less than a year reduced by an average of around 50%.
As many other reports about IP counter fighting, enforcement etc., one of the main points is that internet has not only changed copyright protection strategy but also made it more complicated. Without cooperation with enforcement authorities from other countries copyright protection will stay at the level below the desired. Despite the fact that there is still a lot of things to do in the field of copyright protection and IP enforcement, the report is positive about trends and common results. So if you have enough time at the evening you can read all details from the report, published by UK IPO.