Making life more comfy for designers?

In the wake of its role in the settlement of the Morgan/PTT comfy hotel furniture dispute (reported by Class 99 here), ACID CEO Dids Macdonald tells me:

"Hotel groups seem to want the design and engineering credentials that companies like Morgan create but then go to alternative suppliers with a remarkably similar spec.

We have just introduced a system where, in future, ACID members who pitch for contracts can send copies of their pitch free of charge to the ACID Design Data Bank. On the front of the pitch/tender documents they communicate that they are ACID members and have sent a copy to the ACID DDB. In this way we hope that this might be a subliminal or not so subliminal message that a 3rd party has also seen the response to pitch or tender!"

This is such a simple idea that it seems absurd that did has not become standard practice years ago. It won't stop a determined copyist from infringing. However, in terms not just of subliminal warnings but evidential value it is bound to improve the business environment in which designers make their pitches. Will insurance companies who dabble in anti-infringement cover, and lenders advancing sums on the security of a designer's IP portfolio, also want to encourage this practice? They should.