WORRIED ABOUT LOSING EU DESIGN PROTECTION FOR UK DESIGNERS AFTER BREXIT?
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Without solid evidence the government will not listen to you and the chances of ACID entering positive dialogue, to influence the decision making process, will be weakened.
Post-Brexit copyright will be about nuanced changes made to existing protection. But for design, Brexit offers an existential threat because of the possible loss of EU laws. UK designers will be severely disadvantaged if they lose EU unregistered design rights, on which the majority rely. EU design laws, both registered and unregistered, protect the individual character of a design in particular as they relate to the shape, texture, contours, lines, colours, ornamentation and materials of the design.
UK UDR protects only the shape and configuration of a design. Entire design sectors such as fashion, lighting and furniture rely on the EU scope to protect their 3D designs; UK law alone cannot protect 3D designs whose individual character is defined by shape, texture, contours, lines, colours, ornamentation or materials. If these EU laws are not transposed into UK law post Brexit, design protection for many design sectors will be lost.
Accordingly, this is a potentially calamitous issue for many design sectors. ACID is pressing Government to introduce a new law which mirrors the protection afforded by EU unregistered design, replacing existing UK Unregistered design to put UK designers on a level playing field with their EU counterparts in terms of IP protection.
In order to provide evidence to support our campaign to ensure that UK designers do not lose protection afforded by registered and unregistered EU design rights we need to ascertain some facts to substantiate our case to support an impact assessment by UK IPO policy makers.
