• UK Registered Designs

UK Registered Designs

UK design registrations are cheap, quick and allow you to say ‘UK Registered Design No. xxxxxx’ in reference to the design. This can act as an effective ‘keep off the grass’ sign to your competitors.

Applications for UK design registrations are not examined to see if the design is new and has ‘individual character’ the two requirements of a valid registration. Instead applications are simply rubber-stamped and it is up to any interested third party to contest the registration.

Normally, if no objections to an application are raised (such as to the reproducibility of the design representations filed or other formal matters) the registration certificate is issued within a few weeks from filing.

From filing, any registration must be renewed every five years, up to a maximum of 25 years.

Filing a first design application, for example a UK or EU application, provides a ‘priority date’. If any applications for overseas design protection are filed within 6 months of the first filing then they can be backdated to the filing date of the first application. Therefore if you file a first design application in e.g. the UK, you are notionally protected worldwide provided any applications for overseas design protection are filed within 6 months.

In the UK multiple designs can be filed in a single application provided that the designs all fall into the same Locarno class. For more information on the Locarno classification please click here.

With UK design applications containing multiple designs, then after registration renewal fees are payable in respect of each design.

Contact us for a free consultation or more information on UK design registrations.

Contact us by telephone +44 (0) 208 158 5960 or email info@londonip.co.uk