No Copy Ethical Council returns to Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair

The newly formed No Copy Ethical Council is a collaboration between Stockholmsmässan and TMF [the Swedish Federation of Wood and Furniture Industry] and was introduced at the 2012 Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair. The Council was a huge success and there will be a second chance in 2013 to receive impartial advice on intellectual property issues while the fair is in progress.

The No Copy Ethical Council aims to help ensure a high ethical standard among exhibitors and to counteract the occurrence of unauthorized copies of familiar or distinctive products.

“We set up the Ethical Council to provide our exhibitors with impartial advice on intellectual property rights issues. The Council made its first appearance at the 2012 fair and got a very positive reception. There’ll now be another chance to get advice on this important and complex issue,” reports Cecilia Nyberg, Event Manager of Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair.

“Many visitors and exhibitors came up to us with questions about No Copy; they also wondered what referring a matter to the Council actually involves and how infringements are assessed. So we’re providing additional information in the run-up to next year and our experts will be available during the entire fair to answer questions,” explains Council Secretary Mattias Malmstedt, an attorney and intellectual property rights expert.

“The question of what truly is an original and what is an imitation, as well as how to assert your intellectual property rights to a product, are complex issues and many people feel uncertainty when faced with filling in a notification form,” Mattias continues.

The Council is concentrating on simplifying the process in preparation for 2013. This work includes creating a clearer notification form, something that gives the user a better idea of the information they need to provide. The decision-making process is also being divided into two stages:

1) The Council makes a rapid preliminary decision within 24 hours and does not need to justify its decision. This means that a decision can be acted upon quickly while the fair is in progress - if a product needs to be removed from a range being exhibited at the fair, for instance.
2) If the notifier requires an in-depth assessment with a guiding statement from the Council based on more material from the notifier and counterparty, the notifier and counterparty have one week from the end of the fair to submit additional material. This statement will then carry more weight and can be used as evidence in an ongoing dispute.

“It’s important to keep imitations off the market; they waste time and energy, and steal recompense from the designers creating the originals. Imitations also leave buyers with a lot of unanswered questions about product quality, proper testing, safety, whether environmental concerns have played any part in material and manufacturing choices, and manufacturing conditions for workers,” points out Cecilia Ask Engström from the Swedish Federation of Wood and Furniture Industry.

 The Ethical Council is a mixture of intellectual property rights experts and designers with far-ranging experience in making threshold of originality assessments. No Copy 2013 consists of Per-Jonas Nordell, Professor of Intellectual Property Law (Chairman), Mattias Malmstedt, attorney at Gullikssons Advokatbyrå (Secretary), Ulf Brunne, Carl Malmsten, Mårten Cyrén, Mårten Cyrén Design and Anna Palleschitz from People People.

Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair will take place at Stockholmsmässan on 5-9 February 2013.

To find out more, please visit www.stockholmfurniturefair.com or contact:

Jessica Agert, Media Relations Manager at Stockholmsmässan, tel +46 8 749 4336, jessica.agert@stockholmsmassan.se

Cecilia Nyberg, Event Manager of Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair, tel +46 8 749 4386, cecilia.nyberg@stockholmsmassan.se