Fiesta Studios halt sale of infringing goods at Spring Fair

Anti Copying in Design (ACID) members Fiesta Studios Limited, leading distributors of artistic giftware, have successfully resolved a copyright dispute arising from this year's Spring Fair over the sale of infringing goods through ACID, assisted by their legal affiliate, McDaniel & Co. Fiesta Studios MD, Andy Kingston, said, "As an ACID Accredited Exhibition show, we were supported by on the spot presence to intervene, take action and deliver a result, a huge benefit to us in the protection of our intellectual property rights."

Fiesta became aware that one of its competitors was selling tiles which depicted images for which Fiesta held the exclusive licence.  Initial requests, asking the competitor to remove the goods from the view of the public and discontinue sales at Spring Fair, unfortunately proved unsuccessful. This left Fiesta with little choice but to press ahead with legal action.

During the exhibition, Fiesta Studios were able to provide evidence to YH Arts Ceramics Ltd confirming that Fiesta Studios were the exclusive licensee to these images. Senior Associate IP solicitor Kelly Hudson of McDaniel & Co. said, "This compelling evidence proved to YH Arts Ceramics that the products which they were selling were the same as Fiesta's tiles and countered the argument that they were independently created. As an exclusive licensee, Fiesta held the sole right to sell the tiles featuring these images and this gave them the right to take legal action against YH Arts Ceramics for selling the tiles without obtaining prior permission."

ACID CEO Dids Macdonald, OBE commenting on the case said, "The dispute was resolved following the exhibition without the need to go to Court and the outcome was a success for Fiesta for three reasons; Fiesta secured payment of compensation for the infringement as well as their legal costs which totalled over £9,000. The competitor also undertook to destroy all the infringing goods by sending them to Fiesta.

Finally, Fiesta also took this issue to Ascential, the ACID Accredited Exhibition Organisers of Spring and Autumn Fair, some weeks ago and, to date, we are awaiting their decision as to whether YH Arts Ceramics Ltd. will be allowed to exhibit at Ascential events in the future. Infringement is clearly against their articulated policy as an ACID Accredited Organiser, which requires a zero tolerance of IP theft. Calling all design-led exhibitors, what do you think?"