Have your say on changes to the UK designs framework

The Government has launched a consultation on changes to the UK designs framework, building on its survey from earlier this year and Call for Views in 2022. This represents the most significant review of UK design law since Brexit and seeks views from designers on how to improve the UK designs system and ensure that it best supports UK businesses.

This consultation, launched by the Intellectual Property Office, puts forward several proposals that are highly relevant to how architects protect and use their creative work:

1. Copyright and design boundaries – clarifying the boundary between copyright protection and design rights, particularly around “works of artistic craftsmanship.”
2. Unregistered design rights consolidation – simplifying the current system of multiple unregistered design rights into a single framework, potentially using supplementary unregistered design provisions as the basis.
3. Anti-competitive design registrations – introducing search and examination powers, bad faith provisions, and opposition periods to prevent designs being registered to block legitimate competition.
4. Small claims court access – including registered design disputes in the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court’s small claims track to improve accessibility for small businesses.
5. Digital design protection – allowing 3D CAD file submissions, expanding accepted file formats, and clarifying protection for animated designs and graphical user interfaces.
6. Design application confidentiality – introducing an 18-month deferment period for applicants to keep design applications confidential before publication.
7. Post-Brexit design disclosure – recognising design disclosures made outside the UK for supplementary unregistered design protection.

The consultation is particularly relevant for architects and architectural practices, with 92% of UK design businesses being microbusinesses and two-thirds of designers not fully understanding how to protect their designs.

To gather members’ views and inform RIBA’s response, we are hosting two online member roundtables:

• Monday 6 October, 14:00 – 15:30
• Thursday 9 October, 11:00 – 12:30

Book your spot today.

If you have any queries, please contact public.affairs@riba.org