Call for evidence outcome

Webmarking for registered design rights: call for evidence

From:: Intellectual Property Office
Published: 17 July 2015
Last updated: 27 August 2015 — See all updates

Read the full outcome

Government response: webmarking for registered design rights

PDF, 401 KB, 14 pages

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Detail of outcome

The response document provides a summary of what respondents said about the proposal to introduce the option to provide public notice of registered design rights by marking relevant products with a website address. This document provides a summary of the key points raised by respondents and the government’s commentary on these issues.

The government would like to thank all respondents for their contributions.

In view of the positive response to the proposal presented, the response document indicates the government’s intention to bring forward changes to the relevant UK design legislation to allow webmarking for registered designs.

Original call for evidence

Call for evidence description

Registered design owners can currently stamp or label their products with the word ‘registered’ and the relevant registered design numbers. This is in order to ensure that anyone who infringes the design cannot later claim they were unaware of the registration, and so be excused from paying damages to the owner.

It is common that multiple IP rights may subsist in a single product, which may lapse or be revoked at different points in time. Rights owners tell us that re-marking products when the details change in one of these ways is very costly, both in terms of time and money. It is an offence to falsely represent that a product is protected by design right.

We are therefore proposing that the relevant UK designs legislation be amended to provide registered design owners with the option of marking a product with the address of a website which links the product with the relevant registered design numbers as an alternative way of providing notice of the rights.

We welcome your views on this proposal.

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