WHAT IS A DESIGN?

What is a design?

The following text is a quote from the UK Government Patent Office website; `A registered design is a monopoly right for the appearance of the whole or a part of a product resulting from the features of, in particular the:

a.. lines
b.. contours
c.. colours
d.. shape
e.. texture
f.. materials   - of the product or its ornamentation.

To qualify for registration, your design must:

1. Be new which means that it must not be the same as any design which has already been made available to the public, and

2. Have individual character which means that the overall impression it produces on an informed user of the design must differ from the overall impression produced on such a user by any design which has already been made available to the public. In assessing individual character, we take into account the degree of freedom of the designer in creating the design.'

There is further text waxing lyrical about the benefits of registering a design with the UK Patent Office to include and again quote from their official website:

A Registered Design

- provides the exclusive right to make, import, export, use or stock any product to which the design has been applied or is incorporated, or to let others use the design under terms agreed with the owner, in the UK and the Isle of Man;

- gives the right to take legal action against others who might be infringing the design and to claim damages. The fact that a design is registered may be enough to deter any potential infringement;

- is a financial asset whose value could increase;

- is a recognised intellectual property right which protects the design from being copied by competitors for up to 25 years;

- may be synonymous with branding of the company's products and image;

- in the UK may be the first step towards international protection.

Not so if your design is as important as the Eurosymbol vehicle registration plate and more recently the vehicle registration plates for Wales, Scotland...