Designs
A design is generally the physical appearance of the whole or part of a product. Designs often make a product attractive and appealing to customers. A design often therefore contributes to the commercial value of the product. A design is typically determined by the lines, contours, colours, shape, texture, or materials of the product, or its ornamentation.
A design may be automatically protected by an unregistered design right, which enables the owner of the design right to prevent others from copying the design. A more effective form of design protection, however, is provided by a registered design.
In order to obtain a registered design, a design application must be filed at the appropriate intellectual property office. Once obtained, a registered design enables the owner of the design to prevent others from using identical or similar designs, even if those designs were arrived at independently.
Registered designs may be obtained at a much lower cost than patents, and are particularly effective at providing protection against identical copies of your product being introduced onto the market. Furthermore, it is possible to obtain a European registered design, which covers all member states of the European Community.
Important aspects of our role are:
- advising on the design protection available for a particular product, including advising on strategies for obtaining effective registered design protection;
- preparing registered design applications that meet the formal requirements of the relevant intellectual property offices, whilst seeking the broadest possible protection.
After a design has been registered, we assist with the maintenance of the registered design and advise on its enforcement in the event that the registered design is infringed by a competitor.
In addition to obtaining registered designs for our clients, we also advise them on how to avoid problems with infringement of their competitors' unregistered design rights and registered designs, so ensuring their freedom to commercialise their products.
In everything we do, we endeavour to advise in a way that is commercially relevant, comprehensible and clear.
For more information about unregistered and registered design rights, as well as associated procedures and costs, follow these links:
Basic guide - Designs
You may also find some of the links to external websites on our Useful Links page helpful.