What is a Registered Design?

A Registered Design gives to the owner the exclusive right to make, sell, import for sale, hire or use any product to which the design (or a design not substantially different) has been applied.

Registered Designs are territorial in nature and the following notes apply to the UK. For further information about foreign design procedures click here

What is involved in applying for a UK Registered Design?

The design for which registration is sought may relate to lines, contours, colours, shapes, textures, materials or ornamentation of the whole or a part of a product being any industrial or handicraft item including complex products, packaging, getup or graphic symbols. A single application covering the same design applied to a variety of goods may be filed.

A number of representations of a product bearing the design are required to support an application for a Registered Design. These may be photographs of drawings of different views of the product bearing the design sufficient to show all aspects of the design. Photographic representations should show the article photographed against a plain and contrasting background, whilst omitting any confusing or extraneous details. In most cases 'informal' representations or even a sample can be filed to secure a filing date and 'formal' representations may be prepared later. 

Prosecution 

The UK Designs Registry do not carry out a search to determine whether the design is new (unless requested to do so) but will still object if they know that the design is not novel. The application will be accepted subject to compliance with formal requirements and a certificate of registration is issued to the applicant usually within a matter of weeks.

Duration and Renewals

The period for which a Registered Design is effective in the UK is five years but this is extendable upon payment of renewal fees for four further periods of five years each, giving a total lifetime of twenty five years.

What conditions does a Registered Design have to satisfy to be valid? 

A Registered Design in the UK may validly protect features of a design including lines, contours, colours, shapes, textures, materials or ornamentation of the whole or a part of a product being any industrial or handicraft item including complex products, packaging, get-up or graphic symbols provided that the features are new and have individual character at the date of filing the application for registration.

A design is considered to be new if it has not been published anywhere in the world. However a  design which would not reasonably have been known in Europe or any publication of the design (such as marketing of the product) by the proprietor in the twelve months prior to the date of filing are not considered to deprive the design of novelty.

A Registered Design does not validly protect design features dictated solely by their function or their need to fit other parts.

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