Designs - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition designs

Definition :

Designs. The registration of and rights in designs are governed by the Patents and Designs Act, 1907, as amended by the Patents and Designs Acts,1919, 1928 and 1932 (cited as the Patents and Designs Acts, 1907 to 1932), and the Patent Rules, 1932 S. R. & O. 1932, No. 873.

'Design' means only the features of shape, configuration, pattern or ornament applied to any article by any industrial process or means, whether manual, mechanical, or chemical, separate or combined, which in the finished article appeal to and are judged solely by the eye; but does not include any mode or principle of construction, or which is in substance a mere mechanical device (s. 19, Act of 1919).

And s. 49 of the principal Act (Act of 1919) (English), as amended, provides as follows:--

49.--(1) The comptroller may, on the application made in the prescribed form and manner of any person claiming to be the proprietor of any new or original design not previously published in the United Kingdom, register the design under this Part of this Act.

(2) The same design may be registered in more than one class, and, in case of doubt as to the class in which a design ought to be registered, the comptroller may decide the question.

(3) The comptroller may, if he thinks fit, refuse to register any design presented to him for registration, but any person aggrieved by any such refusal may appeal to the Appeal Tribunal, and the Appeal Tribunal shall, after hearing the applicant and the comptroller, if so required, make an order determining whether, and subject to what conditions, if any, registration is to be permitted.

(4) An application which, owing to any default or neglect on the part of the applicant, has not been completed so as to enable registration to be effected within the prescribed time shall be deemed to be abandoned.

(5) A design when registered shall be registered as of the date of the application for registration.

Registration gives a copyright in the design for 5 years (s. 53), and for the nature of the protection afforded, see Harper &Co. v. Wright & Co., (1896) 1 Ch 140. The registration of a design can be cancelled if it is used for manufacture exclusively or mainly outside the United Kingdom (s. 58). As to protection in a foreign state, see s. 91.