UKIPO Consultation On Proposed Changes To UK Designs Law Framework

The UK Intellectual Property Office recently undertook a public consultation on modernising UK designs law, seeking to ensure that the UK designs system remains fit for purpose in light of technological developments, changes to other designs systems around the world (especially in the EU), and user requirements. The results of the consultation are awaited with interest, particularly in relation to the following areas:

1. Expansion to emerging technologies: recent technological advances, such as 3D printing, and virtual products that exist only in the Metaverse, have resulted in a number of uncertainties around how designs utilising such technologies may be protected and enforced under existing design law. EU designs law has recently been updated to address these issues, and it is hoped that UK design law will be amended in a similar manner, so as to expressly recognise design protection in virtual designs, and to provide clear means of enforcement in relation to CAD