Changes to the Law on Registered Design begin to take shape

The government wished to encourage innovation. As a result British Designers have been morewilling to register their deisgns than their European counterparts.

The Patent Office recently commented

“Since the introduction of the registered Community design in April of 2003, not only has demand for UK design registration decreased significantly, but also the proportion of unrepresented applicants from small and medium sized enterprises has more than doubled to about 70%”.

Its aim :-

To make it “easier to protect new designs should encourage innovation in the field of design. Our intention is therefore to keep the cost of registering new designs as low as possible and to register UK designs in the sort of timescale which is relevant to a fast moving sector of theeconomy. This will encourage innovators to protect their new designs and gain the benefits, if their preference is for a UK registration rather than a more expensive Community registration.”

In October last year the Regulatory Reform (Registered Designs) Order 2006, the Registered Designs Rules 2006 and the Registered Designs (Fees) Rules 2006 all came into force which has improved the filing of designs by UK designers.