The Registered Designs (Amendment) Rules 2001

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Rules)

These Rules amend the Registered Designs Rules 1995 (S.I. 1995/2912 as amended by S.I. 1999/3196), consequent upon amendments made to the Registered Designs Act 1949 (c. 88) (“the 1949 Act”) by the Registered Designs Regulations 2001 (S.I. 2001/3949). Those regulations implement Directive 98/71/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13th October 1998 on the legal protection of designs (O.J. No. L289, 28.10.98, p. 28).

In particular, these Rules make the following changes to the Registered Designs Rules 1995—

(a) they amend rules 2, 14, 17, 19, 69 and 71, revoke rules 13, 16 and 18 and insert a new rule 17A in order to change references to designs applied to articles to designs applied to, or incorporated in, products; to omit references to a single article and to a set of articles; and to reflect the new requirements of the 1949 Act for registration of a design;

(b) they amend rule 14 to provide for an application for registration of a design to specify the product to or in which the design is intended to be applied or incorporated rather than stating the article to which the design is to be applied since the protection conferred by registration will no longer be restricted to a specified article or set of articles;

(c) they amend rule 15 to provide for partial disclaimers limiting the scope or extent of protection to be conferred by registration in place of statements of novelty;

(d) they revoke rules 22 and 24 to 26 which provide for disclaimers, limitations and exclusions in relation to the registration of designs which are no longer applicable;

(e) they amend rule 32 to omit reference to a limitation on the duration of a right in a registered design which will no longer apply;

(f) they revoke rules 34 and 35 and insert a new rule 36A to reflect amendments to the 1949 Act affecting the assessment of novelty;

(g) they amend rules 52 and 60 and revoke rule 59 to omit references to compulsory licences and licences of right which are no longer available and to reflect new provisions in the 1949 Act for cancellation and invalidation of registrations;

(h) they amend rule 68 to omit reference to evidence which will no longer be filed in support of applications for registration; and

(i) they amend rules 36 and 76 and provide for new Designs Forms 2A, 19A and 21 consequent upon these amendments.

The remaining rules are unchanged.

Rules 27 to 30 make transitional provisions for applications and registrations already existing when these Rules come into force and for lapsed and former registrations at that time so far as the Registered Designs Rules 1995 apply to them.

A regulatory impact assessment is available, copies of which have been placed in the libraries of both Houses of Parliament. Copies of the assessment are also available from the Intellectual Property Policy Directorate, Concept House, Cardiff Road, Newport NP10 8QQ.