Unregistered Community Designs
27 May 2010 Revised 5 and 9 April 2017 and 13 Jan 2021
Unregistered Community design is an EU wide intellectual property right subsisting under Council Regulation N (EC) No 6/2002 of 12 December 2001 on Community designs (OJ EC No L 3 of 5.1.2002, p. 1) ("The Community Design Regulation"). The right ceased to apply to the UK at 23:00 on 31 Dec 2020. In accordance with art 57 of the Agreement on the withdrawal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community, it has been replaced by a similar national IP right known as the right to a Supplementary Unregistered Design.
Designs that could have been registered as registered Community designs ("RCD") are protected automatically from copying throughout the European Union for up to 3 years from the date upon which they are first made available to the public as unregistered Community designs. The requirements for subsistence are the same as for registration, namely novelty and individual character which are discussed in more detail on the Registered Designs page.
The main differences between registered and unregistered Community designs are as follows:
Unregistered Community design is an EU wide intellectual property right subsisting under Council Regulation N (EC) No 6/2002 of 12 December 2001 on Community designs (OJ EC No L 3 of 5.1.2002, p. 1) ("The Community Design Regulation"). The right ceased to apply to the UK at 23:00 on 31 Dec 2020. In accordance with art 57 of the Agreement on the withdrawal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community, it has been replaced by a similar national IP right known as the right to a Supplementary Unregistered Design.
Designs that could have been registered as registered Community designs ("RCD") are protected automatically from copying throughout the European Union for up to 3 years from the date upon which they are first made available to the public as unregistered Community designs. The requirements for subsistence are the same as for registration, namely novelty and individual character which are discussed in more detail on the Registered Designs page.
The main differences between registered and unregistered Community designs are as follows:
- an unregistered Community design is infringed by making, offering, putting on the market, importing, exporting or using a product in which the unregistered Community design is incorporated or to which it is applied that results from copying, or by stocking such a copy for those purposes;
- an unregistered Community design subsists for 3 years whereas a registered design can be registered for up to 25 years; and
- claims for unregistered Community design infringement can be brought in the Intellectual Property List of the Chancery Division, Intellectual Property Enterprise Court and in the County Court at Birmingham, Bristol, Caernarfon, Cardiff, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Mold, Newcastle or Preston whereas claims for registered Community design infringement must be brought in the Patents Court or the Intellectual Property Enterprise County Court.
