ACID launches online marketplace

British industry group Anti Copying in Design (ACID) has opened an online marketplace seeking to match designers with prospective customers.

The marketplace, launched on Tuesday, allows ACID members to exhibit their designs to potential buyers, who can view the creations for free.

ACID members will have three free spaces on the database, before being charged £1 per submission (which includes up to six files) to showcase more designs.

Each year members log between 18,000 and 25,000 designs on ACID’s design databank, which helps to independently verify a design. Until now, this database has been confidential, though ACID members can invite prospective customers to view their designs.

The new marketplace, supported by the design databank, will help to forge new business relationships within a safe environment, ACID said in a statement.

Dids Macdonald, ACID chief executive, said the new project opens up “all sorts” of exciting IP trading opportunities, such as licensing deals, design commissions and collaborations.

“ACID marketplace will be a positive conduit for the brokering and exchange of intellectual property rights,” she said.

One designer, Lee Broom, explained the marketplace’s benefits in more detail.

“Not only does it secure evidence of the creator’s ownership, but expands the availability of intelligent ideas to the market and encourages greater access to suitable buyers.

“I hope the entire industry will support this important endeavour,” he said.

Nearly £16 million is invested in designs each year in the UK, according to government figures, and the ACID marketplace is expected to boost the creative economy.

“ACID has shown real initiative in taking this bold step,” said IP minister Lord Younger. “This will now mean that people are going to better understand the value of designs, and it will also help our world class designers to market and sell their innovative creations.”