Design rights

Registered designs

A UK registered design protects the appearance of the whole or a part of a product — lines, contours, colours, shape, texture and materials. Protection runs in five-year terms up to a maximum of twenty-five years, provided each renewal is paid.

We prepare the representations, file at the UKIPO, and docket the four subsequent renewals. Multiple designs can be filed in one application where they belong to the same Locarno class, which is usually cheaper than a string of singles.

Unregistered rights

UK unregistered design right arises automatically in original designs of shape or configuration. It lasts for fifteen years from first recording, or ten years from first marketing, whichever ends first. The last five years are subject to licences of right.

The supplementary unregistered design (SUD) covers surface decoration as well as shape, for three years from first disclosure in the UK. It is the domestic successor to the EU unregistered Community design, which no longer extends here.

These rights are easy to lose in an argument if you cannot prove the date of first disclosure or the designer. We keep a disclosure log: dated images, the first public showing, and the chain of title from the designer to the company.

When to file and when to rely on the automatic right

File when the look is the product, when you will need to stop a copyist quickly, or when a buyer will want a register entry. Rely on unregistered right for short-run seasonal work where a filing programme would cost more than the collection is worth. We will say so, in writing.

Questions we are asked

Can I still rely on an EU registered design in the UK?

Only if it was registered or pending at the end of the Brexit transition period, in which case a comparable UK right was created. Designs filed at EUIPO after that date do not cover the UK. We check the filing date before anyone assumes they are protected here.

Does publication destroy novelty?

A UK registered design has a twelve-month grace period from the designer's own disclosure. Disclosing first and filing later is possible, but it is a poorer record than filing first. We prefer to file, then launch.