Design Right
Part III of the Act creates a "design right" separate from the registration of designs governed by the Registered Designs Act 1949. To qualify, the design must be original (not commonplace in the field in question) and not fall into one of the excluded categories (s. 213(3)):
- principles and methods of construction;
- articles which must connect with or otherwise fit another article so that one or the other may perform their function;
- designs which are dependent on the appearance of another article;
- surface decoration.
The design must be recorded in a document after 1989-08-01 (s. 213(6)): designs recorded or used before that date do not qualify (s. 213(7)).
The design right lasts for fifteen years after the design is recorded in a document, or for ten years if articles have been made available for sale (s. 216).
Read more about this topic: Copyright, Designs And Patents Act 1988
Famous quotes containing the word design:
“Nowadays the host does not admit you to his hearth, but has got the mason to build one for yourself somewhere in his alley, and hospitality is the art of keeping you at the greatest distance. There is as much secrecy about the cooking as if he had a design to poison you.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“A good scientist is a person with original ideas. A good engineer is a person who makes a design that works with as few original ideas as possible. There are no prima donnas in engineering.”
—Freeman Dyson (b. 1923)