By Design: Design Rights And Brexit

• Published date: 06 November 2020
• Subject Matter: Government, Public Sector, Constitutional & Administrative Law
• Law Firm: Haseltine Lake Kempner LLP
• Author: Ms Sanjeet Plaha and Kathryn Leake

As of the end of the Brexit transition period (currently 31 December 2020), EU-wide IP rights will no longer apply in the UK. Here, we explore how the upcoming changes in law will affect your registered and unregistered design rights.

Registered designs

At the end of the Brexit transition, Registered Community Designs (RCDs) will no longer be in force in the UK. All RCDs registered at that date will be cloned into equivalent UK registered designs with the same priority dates as the original RCD. This means that owners will maintain full protection for their registered designs across the remaining 27 EU Member States and the United Kingdom. However, importantly, UK cloned designs will have to be maintained and renewed separately to the original RCDs.

Any RCD applications pending at the end of the Brexit transition will not be cloned automatically but can be re-filed in the UK with the same priority date as the equivalent RCD, within 9 months of Brexit day.

Unregistered designs

The rules regarding unregistered rights are (like the rights themselves) a little more complicated.

At the moment, any new designs created by UK citizens/companies may qualify for both Unregistered Community Design Right (UCDR), a EU-wide design right, and UK Unregistered Design Right (UKUDR).

UCDR protects two-dimensional and three-dimensional features of the appearance of products or parts of such products and lasts three years from first publication, while UKUDR protects three-dimensional features of the design of a product (excluding surface decoration) and lasts up to 10 years from first marketing.

Following the end of the Brexit transition period, UCDRs will cease to apply in the UK. All UCDRs in force at the end of the transition will continue to apply in the remaining EU member states, and the UK will grant separate Continuing Unregistered Design rights offering...