Registered Designs

Abstract

Copyright and unregistered design right are both concerned with the protection of aspects of design. Copyright was always available to protect artistic designs (whether in two-dimensional form as graphic works or photographs, or in three-dimensional form as sculpture, architecture or works of artistic craftsmanship). Until the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, the low level of artistic quality required for protection of two-dimensional works, and the possibility of infringement of a two-dimensional work by a three-dimensional representation, meant that functional articles could be protected by copyright existing in underlying design drawings. Since August 1989, this form of protection for functional designs and other aspects of shape or configuration has been replaced by the new design right (s.213).