A design is the appearance of a product or part of a product: its shape, configuration, pattern, decoration, colours, contours, texture or materials. Registering a design gives you the exclusive right to use it in the UK and to stop others making, selling or importing products with a design that does not create a different overall impression on an informed user, even if they did not copy you.
A design registration does not protect how a product works. To protect a technical feature, you need a patent.
Registered or unregistered design protection
Some design protection is automatic and free, but it is narrower than a registration.
Register your design if:
- the appearance of your product is what makes it sell
- you expect it to be on the market for longer than a few years
- you want to license the design or show investors that you own it
- you want protection for surface pattern or decoration, which UK design right does not cover
Deliberately copying a registered design in the course of business, or knowingly dealing in copies, is also a criminal offence, which gives you more ways to act against copycats.
When to apply
Your design must be new and have individual character, meaning the overall impression it gives an informed user differs from designs already available to the public. Apply before you show, sell or publish the design if you can. If you have already disclosed it yourself, you must apply within 12 months of that first disclosure, or your own disclosure can be used to refuse or cancel your registration.
Check who owns the design before you apply, especially if a freelancer, agency or employee created it.
How to apply
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Search the design registers
Check the UK designs register, and the EUIPO and WIPO registers if you trade abroad, to see whether someone has already registered a similar design. You can ask the IPO to search the UK register for you for a fee.
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Prepare your illustrations
Use drawings, photographs or computer-aided design (CAD) images, all of the same type, showing only the design against a plain background with each view as a separate illustration. Show one version of the design per registration. You can upload up to 12 illustrations of each design online.
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Mark anything you do not want to register
Grey out, outline or circle parts you do not want to protect, and add a written disclaimer - for example that you are registering the shape of a product but not its colour.
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Apply online or by post
You can apply for up to 50 designs at a time online, registering each design separately. Applying online costs less than by post.
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Decide whether to defer publication
You can delay registration and publication for up to 12 months, for example while you test the design in confidence. Your design is not protected until it is registered, and you pay a fee to publish each deferred design.
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Respond to any objections
The IPO examines your application. If it raises an issue, you will usually have at least 2 months to resolve it.
After your design is registered
Your design is published in the journal of registered designs and anyone can view it. You can put your registration number on your products. Renew the registration to keep it in force.
You can license, sell or mortgage a registered design. A registered design protects you in the UK only. To protect your design abroad, apply in each country or region, or use the international Hague system run by the World Intellectual Property Organization.
Legal basis
Primary legislation and key regulations