Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

Designs U.K.

51 Design documents and models. U.K.

(1) It is not an infringement of any copyright in a design document or model recording or embodying a design for anything other than an artistic work or a typeface to make an article to the design or to copy an article made to the design.

(2) Nor is it an infringement of the copyright to issue to the public, or include in a film [F1 or communicate to the public], anything the making of which was, by virtue of subsection (1), not an infringement of that copyright.

(3) In this section—

• “design” means the design of F2 ...the shape or configuration (whether internal or external) of the whole or part of an article, other than surface decoration; and

• “design document” means any record of a design, whether in the form of a drawing, a written description, a photograph, data stored in a computer or otherwise.

Textual Amendments

F1 Words in s. 51(2) substituted (31.10.2003) by The Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003 (S.I. 2003/2498), reg. 2(1), Sch. 1 para. 8(3) (with regs. 31-40)

F2 Words in s. 51(3) omitted (1.10.2014) by virtue of Intellectual Property Act 2014 (c. 18), ss. 1(2), 24(1); S.I. 2014/2330, art. 3, Sch.

F3 52 Effect of exploitation of design derived from artistic work. U.K.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Textual Amendments

F3 S. 52 omitted (28.7.2016) by virtue of Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 (c. 24), ss. 74(2), 103(3); S.I. 2016/593, arts. 2(1), 3 (with arts. 4, 5)

53 Things done in reliance on registration of design. U.K.

(1) The copyright in an artistic work is not infringed by anything done—

(a) in pursuance of an assignment or licence made or granted by a person registered[F4 —

(i)] under the M1 Registered Designs Act 1949 as the proprietor of a corresponding design, and[F5 , or

(ii) under the Community Design Regulation as the right holder of a corresponding registered Community design]

(b) in good faith in reliance on the registration and without notice of any proceedings for the cancellation [F6 or invalidation] of the registration or[F7 , in a case of registration under the 1949 Act,] for rectifying the relevant entry in the register of designs;

and this is so notwithstanding that the person registered as the proprietor was not the proprietor of the design for the purposes of the 1949 Act[F8 or, in a case of registration under the Community Design Regulation, that the person registered as the right holder was not the right holder of the design for the purposes of the Regulation].

(2) In subsection (1) a “corresponding design”, in relation to an artistic work, means a design within the meaning of the 1949 Act which if applied to an article would produce something which would be treated for the purposes of this Part as a copy of the artistic work.

[F9 (3) In subsection (1), a “ corresponding registered Community design ”, in relation to an artistic work, means a design within the meaning of the Community Design Regulation which if applied to an article would produce something which would be treated for the purposes of this Part as a copy of the artistic work. ]

[F10 (4) In this section, “ the Community Design Regulation ” means Council Regulation ( EC ) No 6/2002 of 12 December 2001 on Community designs. ]

Textual Amendments

F4 Word in s. 53(1)(a) inserted (1.10.2014) by Intellectual Property Act 2014 (c. 18), ss. 5(2)(a), 24(1); S.I. 2014/2330, art. 3, Sch.

F5 Words in s. 53(1)(a) inserted (1.10.2014) by Intellectual Property Act 2014 (c. 18), ss. 5(2)(b), 24(1); S.I. 2014/2330, art. 3, Sch.

F6 Words in s. 53(1)(b) inserted (9.12.2001) by S.I. 2001/3949, reg. 9(1), Sch. 1 para. 16 (with transitional provisions in regs. 10-14)

F7 Words in s. 53(1)(b) inserted (1.10.2014) by Intellectual Property Act 2014 (c. 18), ss. 5(3), 24(1); S.I. 2014/2330, art. 3, Sch.

F8 Words in s. 53(1) inserted (1.10.2014) by Intellectual Property Act 2014 (c. 18), ss. 5(4), 24(1); S.I. 2014/2330, art. 3, Sch.

F9 S. 53(3) inserted (1.10.2014) by Intellectual Property Act 2014 (c. 18), ss. 5(5), 24(1); S.I. 2014/2330, art. 3, Sch.

F10 S. 53(4) inserted (1.10.2014) by Intellectual Property Act 2014 (c. 18), ss. 5(6), 24(1); S.I. 2014/2330, art. 3, Sch.

Marginal Citations

M1 1949 c. 88.