There have been significant changes to the laws protecting registered designs in the UK in the last 5 years. These changes not only affected substantive aspects of the law, but also the mechanisms for obtaining registered design protection in the UK.

In the first place, in 2001, the UK significantly amended its legislation to come into line with the European Harmonisation Directive. The changes had the effect of significantly broadening the concept of what could be protected as a registered design, so that a design now extends not only to shapes and patterns, but also textural elements and graphical icons. This has meant a blurring of the lines between trade marks and designs, such that a number of applicants are using both systems to protect their logos and 3-dimensional trade marks. The amendments also include changes to the scope of infringement and the definition of infringement. Although applications must still indicate the product to which the design will be applied, the scope of a design is no longer limited to this and a registration can now be infringed by a design which produces a similar overall impression on the informed user, whatever product. In 2006, the UK also made changes to the rules governing the filing and examination of registered designs, to allow for multiple design applications and deferred publication.

In addition, in 2002 Europea also implemented the Community Design Registration. This means that applicants needing design protection in the UK can choose between filing a UK application and a Community application covering the whole EU. In some way the UK and Community systems are very similar, in that they have the same definition of a design and its scope. Both systems also offer applicants the opportunity to file multiple design applications and defer publication, although subtle differences still remain between the two. In essence, the UK system is cost effective if an applicant wants protection in a limited geographical area. However, the Community system offers protection in 25 European countries (link) and is cost effective if an applicant requires protection in 3 or more territories.

Both systems exercise very little examination and it is usual for design applications to proceed without objections being raised against them. Most questions of validity will therefore be addressed either through cancellation actions, through counterclaims to infringement or requests for declarations of non-infringement. Consequently, the registered design systems offer a cheap mechanism for obtaining a form of registered protection.