NIPC Law

  Jane Lambert Appointed Person (Mr Martin Howe QC) BVG  Group Ltd, v Magee    O-222-20 6 Oct 2020 This was an appeal to the Appointed Person by Mr Peter Magee against the decision of Mr Mark King to declare invalid r egistered design number 4009288  invalid (see BVG Group Ltd. v Magee   O/713/19 22 Nov 2019). The hearing officer held that the design did not satisfy section 1C (1) of the Registered Designs Act 1949 in that its features were dictated solely by the product’s technical function.  Mr Magee appealed against that decision on two grounds: “1.1. The Hearing Officer failed to consider various features of the appearance of the design. He failed to consider whether those features of the appearance of the design had a technical function, and failed to consider whether those features had an appearance that was solely dictated by their technical function.  1.2. Further, having conducted an analysis that led him to conclude that the features of ...

WIPO Author Jane Lambert} © 2004 All rights reserved Jane Lambert On 13 March 2018 the British government deposited with the Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization ("WIPO") an instrument of ratification  o f the Geneva Act of the Hague Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Industrial Designs  ("the Hague Agreement").  The deposit of that instrument enabled the UK to join the Hague system for the registration of industrial designs from 13 June 2018.  The Hague system allows businesses to register up to 100 designs in 69 countries in a single application. The Hague system is not entirely new to British business as the European Union has been party to the Hague Agreement since 1 Jan 2008.  The EU's participation in the Hague system works well for businesses that want to protect their designs throughout the whole EU as well as other parties to the Hague Agreement but Community design registra...

Jane Lambert Martin Howe QC   Ahmet Erol v Sumaira Javaid   BL O/253/17 12 June 2017 The Registered Designs Act 1949  was passed the same year as the Patents Act 1949. S.85 (2)  of the Patents Act 1949 established a Patents Appeal Tribunal ("PAT") which heard appeals from hearing officers. There was a corresponding provision under s.28  of the Registered Designs Act 1949 which established a Registered Designs Appeal Tribunal ("RDAT"). The PAT was abolished by the Patents Act 1977 but the RDAT trundled on until the Intellectual Property Act 2014 came into force (see Jane Lambert  How the Intellectual Property Act 2014 changes British Registered Design Law   19 June 2014 JD Supra). S.10 (4) of that Act repealed s.28 of the Registered Designs Act 1949 and with it the RDAT.  S.10 (2) of the 2014 Act inserted new sections 27A and 27B into the 1949 Act which gave those who wished to appeal against a decision of a hearing o...