Sole Technical Function in Design Cases - What You Need to Know

Introduction

Registered designs are subject to various exclusions prohibiting protection for articles or features thereof in certain circumstances.

One of those exclusions is a design or features for which the shape is determined purely by technical function.

Registered design protection is often sought for industrial products as well as products created purely for aesthetic reasons.

Many products also have a function they fulfil as well as having aesthetic qualities.

Whether a feature or design falls within the exclusion has been the subject of significant amounts of case law.

This short webinar will discuss the law on technical function exclusion in the UK and on the validity of EU designs, and will explore how the law is applied in cases in the UK courts and invalidity cases on EU designs.

A range of cases will be discussed, including the key EU case from recent years, DOCERAM, light-up gin bottles in the recent M&S v Aldi case and a number of other related cases.

What You Will Learn

This short webinar will cover the following:

• Brief background law relating to technical function of registered designs
• Assessing the applicability of the technical function exclusion on designs
• Case law examples and analysis

This pre-recorded webinar will be available to view from Monday 21st July 2025

Alternatively, you can gain access to this webinar and 1,700+ others via the MBL Webinar Subscription. Please email webinarsubscription@mblseminars.com for more details.