UK Registered Designs

UK registered designs afford protection in the United Kingdom. Due to the harmonisation of design law across the EU, many important features of UK registered design law are now the same as those of registered Community design law. For example, a UK registered design can protect the same type of designs as a registered Community design, give rise to approximately the same type of rights and remedies, and last for the same length of time. Further information about these aspects of protection can be obtained by following the relevant links for registered Community designs. In this section, we concentrate on the major differences between UK and Community registered designs.

In order to obtain a UK registered design, an application must be made to the UK Design Registry (part of the UK Intellectual Property Office). A UK application is subject to more stringent examination than a corresponding registered Community design application. However, the UK examination procedure is still fairly cursory. Whilst an examiner is obliged to raise objections if he has reasonable grounds to believe that a design is not new or that it lacks individual character, a routine search will not be carried out in respect of every application. In practice, this means that objections will only be raised against designs that are self-evidently not new, or lacking in individual character.

If objections are raised by the Design Registry, an applicant has the right to file written submissions or request a Hearing to try to persuade the Registry to waive the objections. If no objections are raised, an application may be granted and a registration certificate issued in as little as six to eight weeks from filing.

Unlike for registered Community designs, there is no provision to file “multiple applications” covering more than one design in a single application. A separate application is required for each design. Therefore, if you wish to protect a number of designs that meet the requirements for inclusion in a multiple application, it is often cheaper to file a registered Community design application covering all the designs rather than file individual UK applications for each design.

Under the registered Community design system, it is possible to request that the publication of a design is deferred for up to thirty months. However, there is no corresponding provision for UK registered designs. Details of UK registered designs will automatically be available for inspection (including on-line inspection) on grant, except where the designs are for wallpaper, lace or textile products. Registered designs for wallpaper or lace are not open to inspection until two years after grant, and registered designs for textile products until three years after grant.

Both the Community Design Regulation and the UK Registered Designs Act set out a general principle that the first owner of the right to apply for a registered design is the designer. Both also contain an exception to this general principle in that, where a design is created by an employee in the course of his employment, the first owner of the right to apply for registration is the designer’s employer. The UK Registered Designs Act also includes a specific provision, which is absent from the Community Design Regulation, that where a design is created in the pursuit of a commission, the first owner of the right to apply for a UK registered design is the commissioner not the designer.