Government wants design industry stakeholders to shape policy on design rights

The UK's Intellectual Property Office (IPO) launched a 'call for evidence' to design industry stakeholders asking them to send in "any research which has a bearing on the design system in the UK and relevant international comparisons". It said the UK was successful in the design industry but that the success was not always "underpinned by formal protection".

"The UK boasts some of the world’s best designers across a range of both expected and unexpected industries, from fashion to automotive, furniture to high tech, food products to engineering," the IPO said in its 'Design: call for evidence' report (24-page / 1.39MB PDF).

"It also seems to be the case that this success is often not underpinned by formal protection of designs via design registration, for example. So we must ask ourselves, why is this the case? What is the current intellectual property framework doing, or not doing, for designers? What changes to this framework might be needed?" the report said.

Minister for Intellectual Property (IP) Baroness Wilcox said that designers should tell the Government what it can do to "support innovation and growth" in the industry. The Government has previously conceded that design rights "may not be adequately geared to the needs of business".

Design rights can be registered by designers and offer similar protection to copyrighted works. Designers can gain a monopoly right to the appearance of the whole or part of a product resulting from its features, including the lines, contours, colours, shape, texture and materials used, or its ornamentation.

The UK's Designs Registry will only register a design for protection if it is new and has individual character. To be new, the design is required to differ from known designs by more than "immaterial details". To have individual character a design must create a different overall impression on an informed user, who is normally a technically sophisticated user of the class of products and who is neither a designer nor a manufacturer.

A design registration can last up to 25 years, although it has to be renewed every five years within the 25 year period.

In May a Government-commissioned review into IP laws and frameworks in the UK reported that the system around design rights "had been neglected" and further advised the Government to base new IP policies on actual evidence. Professor Ian Hargreaves, who led the review, said there needed to be a "thorough reassessment of IP and design".

In submitting evidence the IPO has asked designers to consider a number of questions, including asking why designers may not choose to register designs and whether some form of electronic registration process would increase the likelihood of doing so. Designers are also asked about occasions they been the subject of legal action over designs, and how many times they themselves have initiated enforcement action over their rights.

Respondents to the 'call for evidence' are also asked to complete an online survey on design right issues.