Design Rights [WEEK 14]
Registered designs
Registered designs help protect the visual appearance of a product granting the creator exclusive rights to commercialize their product without risk of reproductions. Unlike a copyright it is something that requires a fee and also requires you to apply online to the Intellectual property office to register your design. You must include all details regarding your design including sketches, illustrations and product notes before your product can be approved to be registered. In total, a registered design in the UK lasts 15 years, and up to 25 upon topping up the payment, that being anywhere form £50 to £150 depending on how many products you wish to register..( GOV.UK 2025)
When registering a design there are a few things to consider, registered designs do not cover unoriginal or common elements such as simple clothing designs or colours, offensive material, likenesses to people that weren't approved by the individual, and any protected flags.( GOV.UK 2025) It is also important to know if you wish to protect an idea rather than a product, you should seek out a patent rather than a register.
Patents -
Unregistered designs
Unregistered designs are much like a copyright in the sense they are made automatically and protect the overall appearance of the 3D object or product. Unlike a registered design however it is your responsibility to have proof of the date and ownership of a design, which might require you to consult with a solicitor or attorney (GOV.UK 2025). According to Mewburn Ellis, the definition of a products design is directly related to its appearance rather that it's function, which would be protected by a patent rather than a register. A copyright is also automatic and covers the unlawful reproduction of any original design, when regarding artistic works a copyright will only be granted if the material is 100% original to the creator, and does not cover any prints made by the artist. (Writers and artists 2012). Copyrights can allow the owner to create licences to print and distribute their work whilst still retaining the original copyright, which is useful for limited run products containing their work. (Writers and artists 2012)
Benefits for registering a design
Some of the benefits to registering your design is protection from reproductions and the ability to commercialze and profit from your design. If you find someone has made a copy of your design you are entitled and protected when taking legal action to protect your IP. As a register is more official than a standard copyright, it sets you in better standing to protect your design. (Davies 2024).
What can we protect in our own project?
Looking at our own project we discussed as a team what elements of our project that we could potentially protect. One of these considerations was our main character, which we could certainly register the design as a whole but their outfits are somewhat generic so the protection of the character would have to include all elements of their design, not just separate elements such as the jumper and hair. The next consideration was the popular girl, comparing her design to other characters in media we noted that she does bare a similar appearance to Hayley in Stardew valley(The secret police limited, 2016), this could pose some issues in terms of protecting our IP so her design might be something that we have to reconsider. Most of the backgrounds should be fine to protect, the main character's bedroom however may pose some issues as there is depictions of other IPs such as the X-files poster and the Aftonsparv alien on the bed. This might just require me to edit these elements to make them more original. We could also likely protect our UI as that is a completely original idea. Something we cannot do is create a patent for our game as we are using a very well known and used formula of gameplay, therefore fundamentally our idea is not original and thus cannot be filed for a patent. Our final consideration of what we can protect is our studio logo, it is original artwork and aside from the depiction of the cassete, contains all original elements.
Bibliography
Davies, A. 2024. All you need to know about registering your UK design (Online). Available at: https://www.birketts.co.uk/legal-update/all-you-need-to-know-about-registering-your-uk-design/ (Accessed at: 24 January 2025)
GOV.UK, 2025. Register a design (Online). GOV.UK. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/register-a-design (Accessed at: 24 January 2025)
GOV.UK, 2025. Apply for a patent (Online). GOV.UK. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/patent-your-invention#:~:text=Before%20applying%20for%20a%20patent,a%20maximum%20of%2020%20years. (Accessed at: 24 January 2025)
GOV.UK 2025. Unregistered Designs (Online). GOV.UK. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/unregistered-designs (Accessed at: 24 January 2025)
Mewburn Ellis, No date. UK & EU Unregistered Designs - The Basics
(Online). Mewburn Ellis. Available at: https://www.mewburn.com/law-practice-library/uk-eu-unregistered-designs-the-basics (Accessed at: 24 January 2025)
WIPO, No date. Patents (Online). WIPO. Available at: https://www.wipo.int/en/web/patents (Accessed at: 24 January 2025)
Writers and artists, 2012. Copyright Law For Artists (Online).Writers and artists. Available at :https://www.writersandartists.co.uk/advice/copyright-law-artists (Accessed at: 24 January 2025)
Games:
The secret police limited, 2016. Stardew Valley (Online). Steam. Available at: https://store.steampowered.com/app/413150/Stardew_Valley/ (Accessed at: 24 January 2025)
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