Consultation outcome

Designs framework survey: Analysis of responses

Updated 12 July 2022

As part of the designs review, the government published a survey to supplement the call for views. The survey was aimed at stakeholders with a lower level of IP knowledge. The survey was published on gov.uk for 5 weeks. Intellectual Property Office (IPO) bulletins and social media channels were used to reach as large a cross-section of designers as possible.

288 responses were received. Full analysis of the survey responses is set out below.

Question 1 – How many people does your business employ?

The vast majority of responses to the survey came from individual designers (58%) and micro-businesses with less than 10 employees (22.2%).

Count
0-1	167
2-9	64
10-49	33
50-249	17
250+	7

Question 2 - In which main industry do you or your business operate? (please select all that apply)

Responses were received across a range of business sectors as shown in the chart below:

Count
Specialist design, e.g. fashion design, industrial design, graphic design	176
Clothing and accessories manufacturing	38
Footwear manufacturing	8
Ceramic products	12
Consumer electronics	7
Motor vehicle parts and accessories	4
Furniture manufacturing	24
Jewellery manufacturing	23
Games and toys manufacturing	16
Software publishing	11
Computer programming	11
Architecture	8
Other - Please specify	65

72 respondents selected more than one category; 19 respondents three or more categories.

Of 176 respondents who selected specialist design, 69 selected this as their only option.

All 7 respondents who selected consumer electronics also selected specialist design.Of the 38 who selected clothing and accessories manufacturing, 28 of these also selected specialist design.

Of 8 respondents who selected footwear, 5 also selected clothing.

Question 3 - Have you or your business received legal advice for your intellectual property (IP) rights from a legal representative?

The majority of respondents indicated that they had never (47%), or only sometimes (37%) received IP advice from a legal representative. Only 11.5% had done so frequently.

Count
Frequently	33
Sometimes	107
Never	135
Other - please specify	13

Question 4 - How would you rate your understanding of the following aspects of the designs regime?

	The design application process	Protecting your designs	Protecting designs using copyright	Unregistered design rights	Different types of unregistered design rights (Supplementary, continuing and UK unregistered design rights)
None	54	42	46	70	104
Poor	90	87	95	115	113
Fair	66	83	78	57	47
Good	55	56	53	36	18
Very good	23	20	16	10	6

The design application process:

Half of respondents indicated that they had no (19%) or poor (31%) knowledge of the designs application process. 23% rated their knowledge as fair, 19% as good and 8% as very good.

Protecting your designs:

Just under half of respondents indicated they had no (14.5%) or poor (30%) knowledge of protecting their designs. 29% considered their knowledge to be fair, 19% as good and 8% very good.

Protecting designs using copyright:

In terms of protecting designs using copyright, nearly half said they had no (16%) or poor (33%) knowledge. Around a quarter considered their knowledge to be fair (27%) and a further quarter had good (18.5%) or very good (5.5%) knowledge.

Unregistered design rights:

Two-thirds of respondents said they had no (24%) or poor (40%) knowledge of unregistered designs. A fifth (20%) had fair knowledge. A minority of respondents considered their knowledge of unregistered designs to be good (12.5%) or very good (3.5%).

Different types of unregistered designs:

In relation to the different types of design protection available in the UK, three quarters of respondents indicated that they had no (36%) or poor (39%) knowledge. 16.3% had fair knowledge and only a small proportion had good (6%) or very good (2%) knowledge.

Question 5 - Are you aware that you can register your designs with the Intellectual Property Office?

56% of respondents knew that designs can be registered with the IPO; 44% did not.

Question 6 and Question 7 - Have you ever registered a design? How many designs did you register in 2021?

72% of respondents had never registered a design and 28% had registered a design. Of those respondents who had registered a design in 2021, 36% registered 1-9 designs, 5% registered 10-19 designs, 2.5% registered 20-29 designs and 1% registered more than 30 designs. Over half (55%) of respondents did not register a design in 2021.

Count
0	44
1-9	29
10-19	4
20-29	2
30+	1

Question 8 - What are the main reasons for registering your designs?

There were 90 responses to this question. 65 (72%) said the main reason for design registration was the level of protection that a registered design provides. Many expressed the importance of design protection for their business, explaining that it is key for commercial success.

Other reasons given for registering designs were deterring copying(8) and ease of proving ownership in case of legal challenge (15). Some respondents (3) register designs as they value IP protection.

9 respondents (10%) felt that unregistered designs offered little to no protection and that the only option was to register their designs.

13 responses (15%) suggested that design protection is not fit for purpose, and the system was “inflexible, poor and outdated”. A further 5 (6%) responses expressed disappointment at the protection given by registration and stated that they no longer register their designs.

Question 9 - What are the main reasons for not registering your designs?

240 responses were received to this question. The main reasons given for not registering designs were:

• not knowing designs could be registered (36 responses, 15%)
• a lack of understanding of the system (but awareness that designs can be registered) (58 responses, 25%)
• cost, time and complexity acting as barriers to registration (69 responses, 30%)
• the level of protection provided being considered unsatisfactory, and the need to fund a legal action to enforce registered designs (34 responses, (15%)
• not being ready to register or not looking to register in the foreseeable future (17 responses, 7%)

Question 10 and Question 11 - Were you aware that the IPO does not perform checks on whether a design is similar to previous designs? With this in mind, when applying for a registered design, would it help you if the IPO checked whether similar designs exist?

161 responses were received to these questions:

• two-thirds (107 responses) said they did not know that IPO does not perform checks on whether a design is similar to previous designs
• a third of respondents (54 responses) were aware that IPO does not perform checks on whether a design is similar to previous designs
• about half of respondents (83 responses, 52%) thought it would be helpful if the IPO checked for the existence of similar designs
• 14% (22 responses) did not think it would be useful for the IPO to check for similar designs.
• about a third (56 responses, 35%) were unsure if checking for similar designs would be useful

Question 12 - Have you ever had your design copied or used without your consent?

All respondents answered this question:

• 61.5% (177 responses) indicated that they had had a design copied or used without their consent
• 13.5% (39 responses) said they had not had a design copied or used without their consent
• 25.0% (72 responses) did not know

Question 13 – If you have had a design copied and used without your consent, could you provide more detail on the outcomes of your design being copied?

167 respondents answered this question. The responses mainly consisted of individual case studies. Key themes and highlights of responses are provided below:

• small design companies or independent designers indicated that they cannot afford to defend themselves against companies with greater financial resources
• several respondents said they had shared their designs with someone who had then copied a product
• the majority of cases are not resolved or are unsuccessful due to companies and individuals being unable to finance legal action
• some respondents contact alleged infringers directly or send cease and desist letters
• some respondents had gone to court, but many indicated they had been unsuccessful and that their designs are still being infringed
• some cases have been successful, but the process is usually lengthy, stressful and expensive
• some respondents have had a successful outcome, for example, items being removed from an e-commerce platform or website, but these respondents were still concerned that similar situations could happen again

Question 14 - Have you ever had to remove one of your products from sale because of a complaint that it was too similar to another design?

Of the 288 responses to this question, the vast majority (94.8%, 273 responses) had not been asked to remove a product due to it being too similar to another. 2.4% (7 responses) had been asked to remove a product and 2.8% (8 responses) did not know.

Question 15 - Could you provide more details if you ever had to remove a product for being too similar to another?

5 responses were received, and 3 gave examples. Two examples indicated they had either removed products from sale or changed them in response to approaches from third parties. In one case, although the respondent disagreed with the allegation that their product was similar to another, they withdrew the product as the other party was larger.

Question 16 - Are you aware that intentionally copying a registered design can be a criminal offence?

The majority of respondents (80%, 232 responses) were aware that intentionally copying a registered design can be a criminal offence. The remaining 20% (56 responses) were not.

Question 17 - If you are aware that intentionally copying a registered designs can be a criminal offence, has the availability of the criminal offence influenced how you enforce your design rights?

Of the 225 respondents this question, 78% (175 responses) did not consider that the availability of criminal sanctions has influenced how they enforce their rights. 22% (50 responses) indicated that criminal sanctions had changed their approach to enforcement.

Question 18 - Could you provide more detail of this?

114 respondents provided further information:

• 8 (7%) respondents stated they didn’t understand the question. 8 (7%) respondents mentioned that they have a lack of knowledge on enforcing designs including the process, costs and penalties
• one response said the government and other organisations should be doing more to support designers, including enforcing their rights
• 10 (9%) responses raised concerns about costs

Question 19 - Are advances in technology affecting how you protect your designs?

Of the 288 responses received to this question:

• 35% (100 responses) indicated that advances in technology had not affected how they protect designs
• 40% (115 responses) did not know
• 25% (73 responses) considered that technological advances had impacted the way they protect their designs

Question 20 - In what way have advances in technology affected you?

66 responses were received to this question:

• 32 (48%) respondents acknowledged technology can make finding copies easier, but also suggested it has made copying easier.
• 24 (36%) respondents feared a lack of protection in the digital environment and consider online IP theft is easier. Concerns relating to 3D printing was a theme in responses (4)
• 5 (8%) responses mentioned the benefit of technology providing time and date stamps when protecting designs
• 8 (12%) respondents considered it is now easier to find copies. However, designers are often alerted by others in their community rather than finding copies themselves
• 5 responses mentioned non-fungible tokens (NFTs), three specifically in relation to demonstrating ownership. One mentioned NFTs in relation to selling virtual copies of goods, and another that there could be confusion as to what rights came with ownership of an NFT

Question 21 - Do you or your business operate in the EU?

288 respondents answered this question. About half operate in the EU (51%, 148 responses), and half (49%, 140 responses) do not.

Question 22 - Where do you usually first launch or show your products in public? (please select all that apply)

Count
Online	234
Trade shows (e.g. fashion shows, exhibitions, Trade fair)	74
In-store	33
Other - please specify	43

234 respondents said they launch products online and 177 of these said they launch online only.

74 respondents said they launch products at trade shows, almost all of whom (73) also said they launch online.

17 respondents said they launch products online, at trade shows and in-store.

43 respondents said they launched their products in other ways. The main alternative option was directly to customers.

Question 23 - Are you aware that since leaving the EU, there have been changes to

Of the 288 responses received to this question, 71.5% (206 responses) of respondents were not aware of any changes to where a product is automatically protected depending on where a product is launched or shown. 28.5% (82 responses) were aware of changes.

Question 24 - Since leaving the EU, have you changed, or do you plan to change how you launch or show your products?

288 respondents answered this question. 17% (48 responses) plan to change the way they launch products and 83% (240 responses) do not plan to make any changes to how they launch products.

Question 25. If you plan to change how you launch or show your products, in what way and why have you changed how you launch or show your products?

Of those who answered yes to question 24, 44 responded to this question.

• 17 responses (39%) stated they no longer sell/register their designs in the EU. This was for reasons of competitiveness or red-tape or because of financial considerations
• 6 respondents (15%) now prefer to register their designs/sell in the EU. 2 responses suggested that that it not worth registering in UK as it is a small market compared to the EU
• 4 responses (10%) mentioned alternative markets such as US, Australia, Canada, and Asia
• 4 respondents (10%) have changed their first disclosure policy. For example, they now disclose online responses said they were no longer showcasing their products at physical events in the EU
• one response suggested that the lack of an agreement on reciprocal disclosure with the EU restricts the ability of small business to expand and increases the potential for copying

Do you have any additional comments you’d like to add?

There were 151 responses to this question. Highlights included:

• the need for more education on design laws, enforcement, and IP as a whole - 26 respondents (20%)
• views on Brexit and specific impacts of Brexit on respondents - 13 responses (10%)
• that IP protection is too expensive - 6 responses (4%)
• 3 respondents (2%) mentioned criminal sanctions for unregistered designs