If you are a business in the UK with a design you want to protect, you must know how to protect your design legally. Interestingly, you can automatically protect designs in the UK, even if they are unregistered. This article will discuss how to protect your design in the UK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To fully protect a design, you need to apply to register it as intellectual property with the Intellectual Property Office<\/a>. Doing so will stop other businesses from stealing your design as a whole or individual element, including its shape, appearance, and design configuration. Registration does not, however, protect the functionality of a design.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Successfully registering a design with the Intellectual Property Office gives you the right to prevent others from using it for up to 25 years. After that, however, you must renew your design registration every five years. This protection not only deters others from using your design but, in the event of infringement, registration enables any future legal action to be more straightforward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You must meet specific requirements to register a design<\/a> successfully. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The design must be: <\/p>\nRequirements for Registration<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n