Patents and trade marks are two of the most well-known types of intellectual property (IP). But design rights are another type and can also be very valuable assets to a business.
Hear from former IP Inclusive intern Susan Nelson about how design rights work and the careers you could enjoy while working with them…
What are registered design rights?
Design rights are focused on protecting the visual appearance of a product or part of it. For example, they can protect a product’s shape or a pattern printed on it.
Examples of registered design rights are the shape of the Coca-Cola bottle and the designs on some football shirts.
How to register a design in the UK
To register a design, you have to apply to the UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO). They will decide whether the design meets the conditions needed to be registered.
Once you have a registered design, you have the exclusive use of it. This means you can take legal action if someone copies or uses your design without obtaining your permission. You can also license it to someone else to use, meaning they can use it if they pay you a fee. Registering a design makes it easier to prove that you own the design and when you created it.
Upon registration, design rights last for 5 years. They can then be renewed every 5 years up to a maximum of 25 years.
How to register a design abroad
Like patents and trade marks, registered design rights are territorial rights and only provide protection in the country they are registered in. Therefore, if you wanted to register your design abroad you would have to apply to the intellectual property body in each of the countries of interest.
If you want to register your design in the EU, you can apply for a Registered Community Design. If granted, your design will then be protected in all EU member states.
Conditions to satisfy
There are various conditions that must be satisfied for a design to be registered:
- It must be new and hold “individual character”.
- It must include either a physical shape, configuration, decoration, colour or pattern. It can include more than one of these.
You cannot register a design that is offensive (uses swear words, say), includes a national flag, uses official emblems or is tied up with how a product functions. If you wanted to protect how something functioned, this is where you would consider looking for patent protection instead.
Once your design is registered you can take legal action if someone uses it without your permission. For example, you could seek damages (compensation) or an “injunction” to stop them.
What if I do not register my design?
Your design may also be protected as an “unregistered” design in the UK. This means you get protection automatically and do not need to apply to the IPO. Unregistered designs are only available for certain types of design and have a more limited duration which can be linked to when they were first put on the market.
You may also have copyright in your design: this too is automatic and does not need to be registered in the UK.
A patent, trade mark or design attorney (see below) can advise about these unregistered rights and how to use them.
Careers working with design rights
These are the main careers that involve working with design rights:
- A patent, trade mark or design attorney can help businesses to register and protect their designs.
- An IP solicitor is a lawyer who specialises in IP law and can help with using and enforcing design rights, for example taking action against infringers.
- An IP paralegal is involved in registering and maintaining design rights, supporting attorneys or solicitors.
Visit our IP career options webpage to find out more about these different careers.
Additional Information
If you want to find out more about design rights, take a look at the following:
- The UK Intellectual Property Office website:
- Registered designs – https://www.gov.uk/register-a-design
- Unregistered designs – https://www.gov.uk/unregistered-designs
- Registering abroad- https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/protecting-your-uk-intellectual-property-abroad/protecting-your-design-abroad
- The European Union Intellectual Property Office website – https://euipo.europa.eu/ohimportal/en/web/guest/designs
- The websites of the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA) (see in particular https://www.cipa.org.uk/how-to-become-a-chartered-patent-attorney/) and the Chartered Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys (CITMA) (see https://www.citma.org.uk/trade-marks-ip/what-is-a-design.html)
Last Updated: November 2, 2024