David and Goliath champion Christine Dunford of Triclimb joins ACID as an ambassador

Anti Copying in Design has announced that Christine Dunford of Triclimb is to become an ACID Ambassador.

Triclimb is famous for bringing a modern version of the Pikler triangle to life and Christine is the designer who turned Triclimb dreams into tangible wooden triangles of endless possibility. Her background is furniture design, carpentry, and craftsmanship – and she is dedicated to designing beautiful and sustainable products for children that promote creative play.

Despite registering her design and trade marking the name, Aldi produced a lookalike and used her trademark without permission. Christine set about on a ‘David vs Goliath’ battle against the retailer and won.

Accepting the role of ACID Ambassador, Christine said: “Our experience at Triclimb has taught us that if you’re a small business looking to protect your designs, the system is very broken. We found ourselves up against much larger companies with deeper pockets. ACID was absolutely crucial for our business; they supported, championed, and worked with us all the way to a successful resolution, and I couldn’t be prouder to support the amazing work they are doing in fighting for real, on-the-ground protection for designers. IP theft is not only unfair; it stifles innovation, adversely affects the UK manufacturing sector, and ultimately costs jobs. We found ourselves in a David and Goliath situation – ACID was our slingshot and pebble.”

ACID CEO Dids Macdonald, OBE., said: “Christine’s tenacity in standing up for her IP rights has been awe-inspiring. Not only that, but she has accompanied me to meet the All-Party Parliamentary Group on IP issues and told her sad tale to parliamentarians who have taken this forward. In further talks with government officials, the IPO is now concentrating on addressing David and Goliath issues head on and thanks to Christine and others being bold enough to tell their story we are making real progress to stop this insidious culture once and for all. Innovators like Triclimb provide the zeitgeist for tomorrows design solutions. IP infringement as we have seen repeatedly, from the likes of Aldo and others, is a sanitised word for theft. It must stop. We couldn’t be more delighted that Chris has joined the ranks of our impressive ambassadors.”