Why register your designs?
Think about how we buy products these days. If you’re anything like me, your buying habits will have become increasingly ‘visual’. I will search online for something I want to buy, and the overwhelming choice available these days means that I often have to rely on visual recognition of the product I want to buy. BUT our memories are imperfect, and we can, as a result, be ‘fooled’ into buying a different product to the one we wanted originally because the two products look so similar on a page showing multiple products, that our imperfect recollection can lead to us making an honest mistake. And if the other product is cheaper…well, that’s likely to be the choice I make.
This is why the visual aspects of products, including (but not limited to) branding, have become increasingly important in this digital age, and why protecting those aspects has become crucial. Logos and the outward appearance of products and (sometimes) their packaging are all designs that can, potentially, be registered if they are distinctive. So, why register your designs? Put simply, design registration can help you to protect yourself against unscrupulous ‘copycats’ that rely on consumers’ imperfect recollection to eat into your market share.
Design Registration/ Trade Mark Registration? Or Both?
Before I talk about the benefits of design registration, I should say that at least some visual elements of a product (especially logos and other visually distinctive elements of your branding) can also be registered as trade marks. I am not advocating one type of IP over the other. In fact, a robust IP strategy would normally include both. But I am a chartered patent attorney, and not a chartered trade mark attorney, so I will leave other experts to extoll the benefits of trade mark registration and, if you would like me to recommend someone qualified and experienced to take you through those, please let me know via the contact details below.
Why register your designs – some benefits
- First, and most obvious, it gives you a legal right to take action against a third party that makes/sells something that offers the same “overall visual impression” as your registered design. It doesn’t have to be identical, but if it’s close enough to seem more or less the same, then you may be able to take legal action.
- If you are selling your product on a platform such as Amazon or Shopify, and a competitor lists a product having a design that looks more or less the same as your registered design, there is a relatively straightforward ‘take down’ procedure that allows you to report these types of infringement, based on your registered IP, and the platform in question will usually take down the offending product listing.
- It adds value to your business. If you don’t have anything in place to protect your market share and, therefore, your revenue stream, it can seriously (negatively) impact the value/investability of your business.
- If large consignments of ‘copycat’ products are being made overseas and sold into your main markets, if you have registered design protection, you can make use of a customs registration process (most first world countries have this facility), which basically allows you to use border control to stop consignments of infringing products before they enter your market, and saving you the trouble and expense of having to go after individual distributors.
Although registered designs are often thought of as ‘weaker’ than patents, because they don’t protect the function but rather the outward appearance of a product, their value shouldn’t be overlooked. In many countries, registered designs are a relatively simple, quick and low-cost way of protecting the effort you put into the outward appearance of your products, and they can be a hugely powerful way of protecting your market share.
Need Help?
If you have any questions about registered designs or need any other advice about intellectual property, please contact us for a free initial consultation by emailing vicki.strachan@strachanip.co.uk or visiting our website at https://strachanip.co.uk/contact/. Alternatively you can use this link to schedule a mutually convenient time to speak: https://calendly.com/strachan-ip-a-fresh-view-of-intellectual-property/30min
