Design Patents

Have you ever noticed that all products – even very similar ones like bottles, smart­phones, and jewellery – come in slightly different shapes and sizes? These subtle vari­ations are of course intended to make sure a design is unique, but they can also make sure that this unique­ness is preserved legally within the United Kingdom. There are two main ways to do this: design right and design re­gis­tra­tion.

UK design reg­u­la­tions and in­tel­lec­tu­al property rights are slightly different from those in the US or elsewhere in Europe. This is because all designs in the UK come with an automatic design right that protects all designs for 15 years after creation or 10 years after initial sale, depending on which happens sooner. The idea behind this design right is to give all ideas basic pro­tec­tion from being copied by others without the need to register, but it only applies to the basic shape, outline, and con­fig­ur­a­tion of three-di­men­sion­al designs. Two-di­men­sion­al designs, like graphic designs and textiles, are not protected by the basic UK design right, meaning they have to be re­gistered as designs for copyright pro­tec­tion.

Design right may be automatic and free, but it requires more than just somebody’s word to win a case. To prove your design right in a court dispute, you must present it to the In­tel­lec­tu­al Property Office (IPO), the reg­u­lat­ory body for all design copyright issues in the United Kingdom. This usually involves having a lawyer keeping signed and dated copies of design sketches or pho­to­graphs. We recommend you seek legal advice and guidance for this.

Design right may apply auto­mat­ic­ally, but it doesn’t offer complete pro­tec­tion for your design idea. Firstly, it only applies to the shape of your object and the con­fig­ur­a­tion of it – meaning the way in which different elements of the design are assembled, spaced out, and arranged. Your design needs to be three-di­men­sion­al and, as we mentioned earlier, you must be able to prove it. If you can do so, you’ll stop other designers from being able to copy your idea. However, design right only lasts for 10 years after your first sale, or 15 years after your initial design was created, and for the last 5 years of your design right validity, you must grant a license of right to any designer who requests one for your design concept.

Design right is useful for pro­tect­ing your design, but it does have its lim­it­a­tions. If you want to add extra pro­tec­tion to your ideas, you’ll need to register a design with the In­tel­lec­tu­al Property Office. Design re­gis­tra­tion offers longer, more in-depth pro­tec­tion for your design idea under in­tel­lec­tu­al property le­gis­la­tion in the United Kingdom. But how do you actually register a design? There are a number of key steps you’ll need to take before you can consider your newest design a protected in­tel­lec­tu­al property. Below, we’ll guide you through the things to look out for when it comes to design re­gis­tra­tion.

It might sound silly, but the first thing to do before applying to register a design is to check that your design meets the necessary criteria. The IPO considers a design to be the ‘look of a product’, and this covers four basic factors:

• Ap­pear­ance: the ap­pear­ance of your design is merely an over­arch­ing term for how it looks generally. This may include a crossover with any of the other design factors listed below.

• Physical shape: a design’s shape relates to the contours of the design edges, the relative pro­por­tions of different sections of the design, and general facts, like the height, width, and breadth of a design.

• Con­fig­ur­a­tion: the con­fig­ur­a­tion is a neat term for the way in which different elements within a design are arranged and laid out as one.

• Dec­or­a­tion: the final factor in design re­gis­tra­tion relates to the style and choice of patterns, colours, symbols, shapes, logos, and other at­tract­ive features that make a design stand out from the crowd.

Re­gis­ter­ing a design will protect any number of the afore­men­tioned aspects of your design. So, if you’ve designed a new water bottle, you could opt for a design re­gis­tra­tion that protects the dec­or­a­tion of the bottle, or the dec­or­a­tion and physical shape, or all factors combined.

There are two ways to register your design: online or via post. It’s cheaper and easier to apply online, so the IPO en­cour­ages you to do so. You’ll need to complete a standard ap­plic­a­tion form, attach all prepared il­lus­tra­tions, and include a fee sheet for the correct fee you’re paying. The price for design re­gis­tra­tion is as follows:

If you want to pause your re­gis­tra­tion and defer it to a later date, then you can request this for a period of up to one year in your ap­plic­a­tion. This can be useful if you still need time to develop your product for the mar­ket­place, but any deferred design must be re­gistered within one year at an ad­di­tion­al cost of £40. To keep your design re­gis­tra­tion valid, you’ll need to renew it a minimum of once every five years. Renewal should take place a maximum of six months before the fifth an­niversary of your original re­gis­tra­tion (or last renewal). Failure to meet this will result in increased charges for ‘late renewals’. Renewals become in­creas­ingly more expensive over time, starting at just £70 for your first renewal but rising to £140 for your fourth one. Full details on renewal costs and penalties for late renewals can be found here.