24 September 2018

Top Tips for Designs | London Design Festival 2018

To combat the grey weather, London hosted its annual Design Festival, bringing some much needed colour to the city. The week long event showcased cutting edge designs and creations by artists, architects, interior designers and entrepreneurs across the city.

In honour of the Design Festival, we posted a series of Daily Design Dos and Don’ts on our Twitter page, sharing some top tips for protecting your designs, creativity and intellectual property.

Keep it confidential! Registered Designs should be sought before the design is publicly disclosed; otherwise this can preclude the opportunity to seek Registered Design protection.

Keep it cost effective. Under both UK and European Registered Design systems it’s possible to file several designs simultaneously in a multi-part application. The more you file, the lower the cost per design.

Keep designs protected. Registering a design in Europe and the UK is simple inexpensive and quick compared to other forms of intellectual property – plus there’s very little that cannot be protected by Registered Designs

Keep it clear and accountable. The first owner(s) of the intellectual property in a design is the original devisor(s) of that design.

Keep an eye on the calendar. The filing date of a Registered Design is critical. To remain in force UK & European Registered Designs must be renewed every 5 years.

Keep digi in mind. Registered Designs can be used to protect aesthetic aspects of digital products e.g. icons and aspects of graphical user interfaces (GUIs) – not just the external, physical product appearance.

Keep all your bases covered. Registered and Unregistered Designs are effective tools for protecting design aesthetics but should be used as part of a suite of IP rights e.g. trade marks, patents and copyrights.

To learn more about our Designs services, please click here or contact one of our attorneys on 0207 830 0000.