The UK has finally implemented the Designs Directive. The new regulations made under the Directive - The Registered Designs Regulations 2001 – have their first working day in force today. In order to accommodate the Directive's intended harmonisation of design laws across the Community, the process of registration of designs in the UK has had to change in some significant ways:
1. Worldwide novelty requirements
To be registrable, a design will now have to be novel worldwide (rather than just in the UK) i.e. it cannot be the same as any disclosed design anywhere in the world. However, prior disclosures that the applicant can prove are too obscure to be known to any designer in the relevant field can be ignored. An example given by the Patent Office is that of a jewellery designer's design not being refused because, quite by chance, it was found to be the same as some jewellery in a remote museum.
