The appearance of a product is often the first thing a customer notices and a large part of why they buy. It is also a legal asset in its own right, separate from the brand name (a trademark matter) and from how the product works (a patent matter). Design rights protect the look itself, and businesses that never consider them leave the most visible part of their product open to imitation. Internationally this area is called “industrial design”, the term WIPO uses. In the UK it is simply design law, and its scope is wider than most people expect.
What counts as a design
UK law protects the appearance of the whole or part of a product: its shape and configuration, its patterns and ornamentation, the lines and contours that give it a recognisable look. That covers three-dimensional designs, such as the shape of a product or its packaging, and two-dimensional ones, including surface patterns, graphic symbols and typefaces. Screen layouts and icons can qualify too, which makes design protection relevant to software businesses that assume it belongs to furniture makers.
To be registrable, a design must be new, meaning no identical design has already been made available to the public, and must have individual character, meaning the overall impression it gives an informed user differs from existing designs. Two features of the UK system make those requirements easier to live with than they sound. First, your own disclosures in the 12 months before you apply are disregarded, so showing a prototype does not immediately sink a later application. Second, the UKIPO does not examine applications for novelty at all; registration is fast and cheap as a result, though it also means a certificate is not a guarantee of validity, and a registration for a design that was not in fact new can be attacked later.
What is left out
Three exclusions do most of the work. Features dictated solely by technical function are not protectable as designs; if the shape is the only way to achieve the technical result, protection belongs, if anywhere, in patent law. “Must-fit” features, the parts shaped purely so they connect to another product, such as a connector moulded to mate with a particular socket, are excluded so that design law cannot lock competitors out of making compatible products. And for components of complex products, protection only reaches what is visible in normal use; the styling of an engine part hidden under a sealed housing has no one to impress.
Registered or unregistered
Registration is the stronger route, and in the UK it is strikingly cheap: £60 for one design filed online, less per design in bulk, with registration usually completed within a couple of weeks and protection renewable in five-year steps for up to 25 years. A registered design is a true monopoly: it can be infringed by an independently created lookalike, with no need to prove copying. What you file defines what you own, so the choice of drawings or renders deserves real thought; our guide on protecting the look of your product in the UK covers the filing craft, the fee scale and the cautionary tale of the Trunki case.
Two unregistered rights also arise automatically, and they matter when registration never happened. UK unregistered design right protects the three-dimensional shape or configuration of an article, but not its surface decoration, typically for ten years from first marketing. The supplementary unregistered design, added after Brexit, protects two- and three-dimensional appearance including surface decoration, but for only three years from first disclosure, and only where that first disclosure happens in the UK. Reveal the design in the EU first and this UK right may never arise. Both rights protect against copying rather than coincidence, which makes them weaker in litigation than a registration. They suit short-lived and seasonal designs. For a product with a commercial life, they are the fallback, not the plan.
Beyond the UK
Design protection is territorial. The EU runs its own registered design system covering all member states, and for wider coverage the Hague System allows one international application to seek registered design protection across many countries, the UK included. Businesses with export plans usually decide where the design matters commercially and register there before the design has been public for long, since most countries offer nothing like the UK’s grace period.
Making it deliberate
The pattern across all of this is that design protection rewards small, early decisions: keeping dated records of when a design was created and first shown, checking what already exists before assuming yours is new, choosing where first disclosure happens, and registering the designs with a real commercial life while the fees are pocket change against the design budget. For how design registrations fit alongside trademarks and patents when funds are limited, see our guide on building an IP portfolio on a startup budget.
If your product’s look is part of what you are selling, ScalaxIP can help you work out which designs to register and where. Get in touch.
Disclaimer: This article is provided for general information only and does not constitute legal advice. For advice on your specific circumstances, please contact ScalaxIP at admin@scalaxip.com
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