Design disputes

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What do design rights protect?

Design rights protect the appearance of the whole or part of a product/article in three-dimensional form and, in some cases, two-dimensional design features such as surface decoration and texture.

Design rights in the UK

The design rights currently available in the UK are as follows:

  1. •

    UK registered designs (including re-registered designs and re-registered international designs)

  2. •

    UK unregistered design right (also known as ‘design right’)

  3. •

    supplementary unregistered design right (SUD)

UK registered designs are governed by the Registered Designs Act 1949 (RDA 1949). Re-registered designs and re-registered international designs effectively operate in the same way as UK registered designs and are also governed by RDA 1949.

UK unregistered designs are governed by sections 213–264 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

SUDs are governed by Assimilated Regulation (EU) 6/2002 and amendments to the Community Design Regulations 2005, SI 2005/2339.

For further detail on the nature of the design rights available in the UK (and the differences between them), refer to: Design transactions and management—overview.

Impact of Brexit

The UK is no

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IP weekly highlights—26 June 2025

Welcome to this week’s edition of the IP weekly highlights: a hand-picked summary of news analysis, updates and new content from the world of IP. These highlights focus on the key rights of copyright and associated rights, database rights, trade marks and passing off, designs, and patents as well as covering issues relating to confidential information, know-how R&D and IP disputes all mainly from a UK and European perspective.

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