Contents
1. Summary
Design protection protects the outward appearance of a product or part of a product, as opposed to its technical function. This section looks at the different types of design protection and highlights what you need to think about.
2. Design Rights
Design protection protects the outward appearance of a product or part of a product, as opposed to its technical function.
Design Rights can be registered or unregistered.
Use this design rights template (MS Word 12kb) to examine the potential for design right protection in your business.
3. Registered Designs
In the UK, a design can be protected nationally – by registering it at the UK Intellectual Property Office (UK IPO) – or throughout the European Union (including the UK) - by registering it at the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM).
UK/EU Registered Designs give you exclusive rights on a design for a maximum of 25 years (renewed every 5 years).
Other countries throughout the world offer similar rights.
Requirements for registering a design
In order to be able to register a design, it must be:
- new – not disclosed anywhere in the world before the filing date (although there is a 12 month period of time after the filing date allowed within Europe - “grace period”)
- of Individual Character – the overall impression it makes on an “informed user” is different from prior known designs
Component parts of a product may be registered independently. For example, a saucepan and its handle could be covered by two different registered designs if both designs were new and had individual character. The handle could then be covered for use elsewhere, for example, on a frying pan.
For the design of a component part of a complex product (such as a car) to be protectable, it must be “visible in normal use”.
If your business involves design, you should consider registered design protection. Get professional advice.
More information about registered designs is available at:
- for the UK www.ipo.gov.uk/types/design.htm
- for the European Union https://oami.europa.eu/ohimportal/en/design-basics
Registered Design search engines
As with patents, there are free registered design search engines where you can find out what designs have already been registered.
The UK design search page is at http://ipo.gov.uk/types/design/d-os.htm. Here you can search for a design by proprietor or product.
OHIM also provides a Europe-wide design search engine at https://oami.europa.eu/eSearch/.
This is a powerful tool which allows you to search for both European Union trade marks and designs at the same time.
Design searching can be more complex than patent searching and online help is available.
Useful source of information
A useful source of information about how to protect your designs is the trade association A©ID – Anti Copying in Design at http://acid.eu.com
ACID is a UK association whose members are textile designers and manufacturers, jewellers, furniture manufacturers, giftware designers, architects, fashion designers, interior accessory producers, etc.
There may be other associations which are more appropriate to your type of business.
4. Unregistered Designs
As well as registered designs, there is also automatic protection for unregistered designs under UK and European Unregistered Design Rights. These rights exist in parallel. This allows you to stop anyone copying your design.
UK Unregistered Design Right (UDR) lasts for either 10 years after the first marketing of articles that use the design or 15 years after creation of the design, whichever is earlier.
European Unregistered Design Right, or Community Design Right, lasts for 3 years from when the design was made public. Unlike UK UDR, the European right also covers the surface decoration of your design.
Unregistered design rights are particularly valuable for fast-moving industries, such as the textile or fashion industry, where it is not practical to register every design created.
Protect your unregistered designs by keeping thorough records. Keep the original documentation, copies of prototypes, etc. preferably signed and dated by the creator and, if possible, countersigned.
In court, you may need to establish that your dates can be relied on, so it can be crucial to show that you have a good system in place. Even with a good system, it can be very difficult (and costly) to prove that someone has actually copied your work.
For an important design, registration gives far more protection.