Our specialist design rights lawyers can help you file and protect designs, as well as resolve disputes relating to registered or unregistered design rights.
What Are Design Rights?
There are two types of design rights – unregistered and registered.
Designs can be registered with the UK and/or EU Intellectual Property Office. You don’t have to register a design, but registration gives you added protection because:
- Your rights are protected for longer (up to 25 years compared to as little as 3 years)
- You’re not only protected against someone copying your design, but also against someone unknowingly infringing your design rights
- You don’t need to establish that you own a design if someone infringes your rights.
If you want to register your design in the UK or the EU, you need to meet strict criteria. Our design rights lawyers can help you understand what can be registered, as well as whether other types of intellectual property rights might be appropriate.
What Design Rights Services Do We Offer?
There are three main areas where our design rights solicitors can support you:
- Filings/applications – we can help you through the application process for UK and EU registered design rights applications.
- Protection – design rights are owned by the individual designer, unless the design was created in the course of their employment with you. If you commission a design from a third party, the design rights are theirs unless they assign these to you. Our lawyers can ensure a contract is in place to make sure you own the rights to your designs.
- Infringements, disputes and enforcement – we can help you if your unregistered or registered design rights have been infringed, or if the ownership or validity of your rights are in question.
Who Can We Help?
We help individuals and businesses of all sizes – from lone designers through to corporate multinationals. Our team has experience in all major industry sectors, with specialist expertise in consumer products and retail.
Why Choose Our Design Rights Lawyers?
We understand that protecting designs is a complicated area, and we’ll help you navigate it with a minimum of fuss. We’ll build a team around you and your needs.
We have a highly-specialised team of lawyers and attorneys who regularly help clients with issues around design rights. In addition, we can also help in a range of related areas, including commercial and employment law.
Contact Us
If you need advice about a design rights issue, our lawyers are here to help. Call us on 0808 271 2602 or contact us online and we’ll get back to you.
