Registered Designs intro 2

4 April 2010

As well as UK Registered Designs, Community Registered Designs can be applied for in Europe, covering the 27 member countries of the European Union.

They cover the same aspects as UK Registered Designs and are also valid for 25 years in 5 year periods.

We often concentrate in readingroom and in many law firms on the rights you can register, however there are other possibilities.

Dealing with the registration of IPR (intellectual property rights) means you file and engage with a lawyer at the Patent Office.

You obtain after examination a certificate for the product/brand/invention. However there is also a batch of unregistered rights.

We will consider these in coming articles but it should go without saying that as lawyers we recommend that you have a strong paper trail for your designs, meaning that you need to keep all papers relating to the creation of the designs, and even consider filing with us to obtain a date.

Tim Mount is a trainee solicitor, contactable at tim.mount@lawdit.co.uk