2014 CIOPORA Chronicle

instantly recognises, understands
and abides by.
Therefore, the consumer response
is lawlessness. It’s almost as though
the shop-keeper has left the store
wide open, with no barcodes or
prices on the products and no
cameras or signage advising that
products may not be taken without
permission or payment.
Even if a store was left unattended,
some people would walk on by as
they would understand that taking
products without payment was
‘shop-lifting’ and that it was illegal.
But when it comes to the download
of digital product from the Internet
the general public perception is that
digital equals fast and free.”
In 2010, you launched
Creative Barcode (CB).
Could you tell us about
the core idea behind this
project and its purpose?
“Initially, the focus and purpose
was to assist designers and brand
owners to reduce their risks and
vulnerabilities when seeking to
collaborate whether through open
innovation challenges, business
pitching, co-creation or any other
concept disclosure activity.
In 2012, we expanded the barcode
system to include Rights Reserved
and Permitted Use tags for use by
creators to embed in completed
works displayed online and to principally
communicate to an Internet
user the details of the owner and
their usage terms.
More recently (2014), we have
over-hauled Creative Barcode to
make the tags discreet and with an
aesthetically improved design and
easier user interfaces.”
Creative Barcode Logo.
By scanning the QR code or following the link on the IP tag the recipient can immediately access the information about the creator.
The update of this information can be undertaken by every creator anytime in his/her Creative Barcode online account
(Photo credits: Creative Barcode 2014).
Could you define the major
problems you set out to solve
by means of CB?
“Having founded and run British
Design Innovation for 17 years
(1993 to 2010) I was well aware
of the difficulties encountered by
designers and innovators when
seeking to obtain fair and fast Non-
Disclosure Agreements (NDA)
from corporations.
Within the corporations those
responsible for engaging external
parties in their product, service and
brand development work or open
innovation activities generally sat in
Marketing, R & D or Innovation
departments at middle-management
level. Design and Innovation
is time sensitive and thereby the
process of engaging two sets of
lawyers and a detailed NDA just
to open up a safe conversation was
akin to taking a sledge hammer to
crack a nut.
Many creators who submitted ideas
and concepts to brand owners in
competition with competitors including
the brand’s in-house team,
often found that, whilst told they
had not been successful in winning
a contract, saw a very similar
concept come to market within
12 months launched by the brand
they had pitched to. Naturally
this caused suspicion, angst and
distrust. And those that challenged
the brand owner often discovered
that the IP legal system could do
very little for them as ideas were
not protected and a lack of any
form of agreement in place by and
large would result in a drawn-out
David versus Goliath legal battle
and a substantial legal bill with no
guaranteed outcome in their favour.
We developed the original Creative
Barcode system to overcome these
problems.”
What makes CB unique
among the other systems
of IP protection?
“We have removed the complexity
and reduced the vulnerability when
engaging with third parties and
enabled safe-conversations to take
place at early concept stage. We put
ethics and trust at the heart of the
solution.
When it comes to completed
works displayed online, IP Tags are
visible and the technology creates
a unique URL embedded in the
tag that leads through to the Meta
Data such as creation date, creator’s
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CIOPORA Chronicle June 2014 | www.FloraCulture.eu 21