Have you considered designs as part of your IP portfolio?

In addition to protecting an invention with a patent or branding with trade mark rights, the appearance of a product is often vital to its success.

A design, in the context of intellectual property, is often described as the shape or ornamentation applied to a ‘product’.

Examples of designs rights include products, sets of products, parts of products, packaging, get-up, typefaces, and ornamentation.

The good news is that some design protection is automatically created upon creation. This is referred to as an ‘unregistered design right’ in the UK. These offer some protection against parties who set out to make identical copies but are often ineffective against ‘look-alike’ products, which can often be damaging and stir up confusion amongst consumers.

Registered designs generally offer a broader scope of protection, as they can be used to stop anybody creating similar goods which impart the same ‘overall impression’.

To be registrable, a design simply needs to possess individual character (i.e. cannot be confused for another design) and be novel.

Novelty for designs is not assessed the same way it is for patents, either. Territories like the UK and EU accept design applications for products that have been on the market for less than a year, meaning that a launched product may still be accepted for design registration.

Compared to patents and trade marks, the design registration is often much cheaper and the process can be a quick as a few weeks or months, with registration lasting up to 25 years, with renewal fees due at five-yearly intervals.

For more information about designs, a detailed introductory factsheet is available and we are happy to discuss and guide you through the registration process. Please email us at mail@stratagemipm.co.uk.