Registered Designs in the UK - A Focus on Freedom to Operate & Infringement

Introduction

Registered designs are a cost-effective, powerful tool to protect the look and feel of products, designs and user interfaces.

Whilst somewhat under-utilised, they are still effective business tools employed by many companies and individuals to protect their products. Therefore, it is important to be aware of and to respect third party rights when engaging in product design.

In this regard, freedom to operate searches can assist in identifying any problematic third-party rights, together with an understanding of how these rights may be interpreted by a UK court should litigation arise.

This virtual classroom seminar will explore the law of registered designs in the UK, discuss infringement cases in the UK courts, and explain how this can be practically applied in the freedom to operate process.

We will consider how to interpret the scope of a registered design and identify whether any third-party rights are a potential risk. We will use case law examples to support this analysis. We will also examine the process of changing a design to mitigate infringement risks from any identified rights.

Finally, the session will briefly cover the initial stages of the process for taking action against a third party or handling incoming actions.

What You Will Learn

This live and interactive course will cover the following:

• Background law of registered design rights
• Case law examples
• Infringement of registered design rights
• Case law analysis
• Design searching and freedom to operate
• Advising and providing opinions
• Designing around
• Preparation for taking action or handling incoming actions

Recording of live sessions: Soon after the Learn Live session has taken place you will be able to go back and access the recording - should you wish to revisit the material discussed.