Finding those UK design registrations…where are they hiding?
In the context of design registrations which cover the UK, there are two potential routes for obtaining this protection. The first route is via the national route, which involves submitting a UK registered design application before the UK design registry (the UK Intellectual Property Office or UKIPO). The second route is to designate the UK in an international Hague design registration, where the resultant protection in the UK is often referred to as a Hague (UK) design registration. Depending on which route is selected, this will affect where the resultant design registration which covers the UK can be found.
National UK design registrations
If the first national route is adopted, there are two locations in which the resultant UK design registration can be found. The first location is the official UK design register, operated by the UKIPO, which is accessible at: dycip.com/ukipo-find-design. Searching of this register is limited to the owner name, or the design number, of the UK design registration in question. However, this register is the authoritative register for national UK design registrations, and thus includes the complete details of each registration, which are required to fully understand its scope. Importantly, this includes not just the representations which make up the design registration, but also any written disclaimer which might additionally form part of the design registration such to affect its scope beyond what is shown in its representations alone.
Another location where national UK design registrations can be found is the DesignView design registration database, maintained by the EUIPO, which is accessible at: dycip.com/DESIGNview. Searching of this register allows for a wider set of search parameters, which include not just the owner name; or the design number; of the UK design registration in question, but also includes (amongst other search parameters) an ability to search for a design registration based on its product indication; and/or its Locarno classification. One word of caution in using this latter register to search for national UK design registrations is that any national UK design registration entry from this register will not show any written disclaimer otherwise present within the registration. As a result, it is always necessary to cross-check this database entry against the official UK design register, to double-check for any written disclaimer which might additionally be present.
DesignView does also include an ability to search for design registrations based on an image search, but at the time of writing, this image search does not extend to design registrations covering the UK which are present on the DesignView design registration database.
Hague (UK) design registrations
To further complicate the situation, Hague(UK) design registrations do not appear on the official UK design register, but do appear on the DesignView design registration database.
Hague (UK) design registrations can also be found on the Global Design Database, which is the authoritative database for all Hague design registrations. This database, maintained by WIPO, is accessible at: dycip.com/wipo-global-design-database. Like the DesignView design registration database, the Global Design Database includes a fairly comprehensive set of search parameters, which include (amongst other search parameters) searching by owner name; design number; product indication; and/or Locarno classification.
To the extent any written disclaimer wording is present in a Hague (UK) design registration, this wording will be nested within any description employed as part of the underlying Hague design registration; this description can be found on the register entry from the Global Design Database for the particular Hague design registration in question.
The above can be summarised in the following table:
| Feature | Official UK design register | DesignView | Global design database |
|---|---|---|---|
| Includes national UK design registrations. | yes | yes | no |
| Includes Hague (UK) design registrations. | no | yes | yes |
| Includes written disclaimer wording. | yes | no | yes (as part of the description) |
| Searching by owner name. | yes | yes | yes |
| Searching by design number. | yes | yes | yes |
| Searching by product indication. | no | yes | yes |
| Searching by Locarno classification. | no | yes | yes |
| Searching by image. | no | no (not for national UK or Hague (UK) design registrations at least) | no |
It is understood that the UKIPO is intending to update the functionality of the official UK design register in due course, as part of its wider ‘One IPO Transformation’ project, which is ongoing. It thus hoped that the culmination of this project will result in a much more comprehensive official UK design register, which hopefully will then also include Hague(UK) design registrations.
Until then, searching for design registrations covering the UK will remain a delicate exercise, requiring care, and a searching of more than one design register, to ensure that any search which is performed is sufficiently comprehensive.
Useful links
- UKIPO corporate report, “One IPO Transformation Prospectus”: dycip.com/ukipo-one-ipo-transformation
- UKIPO UK design register: dycip.com/ukipo-find-design
- EUIPO DesignView design registration database: dycip.com/DESIGNview.
- WIPO global design database: dycip.com/wipo-global-design-database.
