Design group taps SnapDragon for SME IP protection

Anti Copying in Design (ACID), a group helping to protect design-based business from counterfeiting and intellectual property (IP) infringement, has formed a partnership with brand protection specialist SnapDragon Monitoring.

The alliance aims to combat these issues by offering design-driven organisations “guidance, advice, and technical monitoring” to protect their assets.

A recent SnapDragon survey found that nearly one in five UK-based small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) report they have fallen victim to counterfeit product sales, resulting in severe financial losses for almost all (93 per cent) of them.

That came against a backdrop of an estimated £13.6bn ($16.5bm) in fake goods infiltrating the UK in 2020, causing legitimate businesses to lose sales totalling £9bn.

The alliance will draw on SnapDragon’s AI platform, Swoop, which scours the web to detect brand threats, infringements on registered and unregistered IPRs, and counterfeit product listings. ACID will complement this effort by offering membership to its IP protection advocacy group.

“Imitation is not the sincerest form of flattery, especially when it has the potential to jeopardise sales, brands, and safety,” said Dids Macdonald OBE (pictured above left), co-founder and chief executive of ACID.

She added that that the partnership “empowers organisations to act swiftly on IP infringements and eliminate them from the internet, providing a robust resource for small and independent businesses battling the counterfeit threat.”

To mark the partnership’s launch, SnapDragon and ACID are hosting a live event on November 9 – registration here – which will introduce the collaboration.

“Counterfeits are a huge problem, yet traditional brand protection has always been geared towards bigger businesses, though counterfeits affect companies of all sizes,” said Rachel Jones (pictured above right), founder and chief information officer of SnapDragon.

“It doesn’t matter if you are a global enterprise, or a small boutique designer, if you have developed a product, you hold the rights to its ownership, and fraudsters should never get away with banking on your success.”