The Law & Practice of the Protection of Designs - What You Need to Know

Introduction

This new full day course will explore the law and practice of design protection and the potential major changes that might occur in the future.

The differing protections available for industrial and artistic designs, including artistic copyright, unregistered design right (‘UDR’), supplementary unregistered design right (‘SUDR’) and domestic registered designs (‘RDs’) will be discussed and the applicability of each to various design scenarios considered.

The course sets out how to make both domestic and international registered design applications and will refer to some pitfalls that might occur before and after a design is registered.

It will also provide an account of both recent trends in design protection and the latest on-going major review of the protection of designs in the UK.

What You Will Learn

This course will cover the following:

• Designs capable of attracting artistic copyright and/or being protected by a registered design, unregistered design right or supplementary unregistered design right
• AI generated designs - capable of protection? Who owns an AI-generated design?
• The effect in the UK of the controversial CJEU Cofemel copyright case ‘substantially’ widening copyright protection available to many designs. Cofemel’s status in the UK post the WaterRower judgment
• Duration of the various rights - not always a simple matter!
• The little known but highly useful and cost-effective UK IPO jurisdiction in design right
• Assigning and licensing of designs. Commissioning designs - the potentially serious but often overlooked issue of legal ownership of any ensuing design under a commission
• Registered designs - can they usefully and rapidly act as a sort of 'petit trade mark'?
• Complex and modular products - when might they be held to constitute a single product under the Registered Designs Act?
• Discussion as to the meaning of 'individual character', 'new', and 'informed user'
• Infringement - what has to be established? ‘Lookalikes’ - an increasing problem?
• The continuing issue and maybe costly effect of making an unjustified threat in a letter before action under several heads of design protection
• International registered design protection - The WIPO Hague Agreement. How to make Hague applications, the cost, timings, and challenges