[Book Review] Designs Law and Practice (3rd Edition)

Formerly published as Sykes: Intellectual Property in Designs, this is a substantially revised and updated new edition which aims to provide a comprehensive but practical reference source for the various IP rights protecting designs, with a focus on the United Kingdom. 

Written by a team at RPC, together with contributions from law firms in several other countries, including the US, the book covers the following topics:

• Chapter 1: Introduction and historical background to designs law
• Chapter 2: UK Registered Designs
• Chapter 3: Copyright and Industrial Designs
• Chapter 4: UK Unregistered Design Rights
• Chapter 5: Threats of Infringement Proceedings
• Chapter 6: Comparison of Design Rights in Jurisdictions Outside of the UK
• Chapter 7: EU Design Rights and the Impact of Brexit

Chapter 1 (“Introduction and historical background to designs law”), Chapter 2 (“UK Registered Designs”) and Chapter 4 (“UK Unregistered Design Rights”) together do a good job of setting out a fairly comprehensive, yet concise, overview of design rights in the UK, and their legislative journey over time. 

Whilst the historical element could be said to be more of academic than practical interest, in my view it is pitched at the right level of detail and provides helpful context in understanding the current state of the law and its intentions. In fact, this occurs in various sections of the book, such as in Chapter 4 on unregistered design rights, where the context as to their inception (i.e. combatting the reliance on copyright to protect functional designs, in order to benefit from the longer period of protection) is very helpful in understanding their purpose and the distinction with copyright.   

A particularly nifty feature is the flow chart for establishing whether a design is capable of registration based on a series of simple yes/no questions.  

In Chapter 3 (“Copyright and Industrial Designs”), RPC do a stellar job of untangling the web surrounding the overlap between copyright and design rights in a post-Cofemel era, including a summary of the most recent cases on the topic in the UK, namely Response Clothing and WaterRower.

Particularly helpful is the last page of the chapter which contains a one-page comparison table setting out a summary of the key differences between copyright, registered design rights, and unregistered design rights.  

Chapter 5 (“Threats of Infringement Proceedings”) is a good example of RPC’s practical aspirations in writing this book, as the risk of unjustified threat proceedings being brought in respect of an overzealous cease and desist letter is one which is often overlooked by practitioners and brand owners alike. 

This chapter breaks down in some detail the various limbs of the unjustified threats regime, and the defences to it, so as to provide the reader with sufficient knowledge to tread safely. 

Finally, Chapter 6 (“Comparison of Design Rights in Jurisdictions Outside of the UK”) and Chapter 7 (“EU Design Rights and the Impact of Brexit”) deal with design rights in other territories. 

Chapter 6 contains a number of comparative tables (prepared in collaboration with local firms) summarising the key similarities and differences in the design rights laws in the US, the EU and Italy, and Hong Kong, as well as select best practices for securing and defending design rights in each of those jurisdictions, while Chapter 7 goes into some detail on EU Community Design Rights and the implications of Brexit for existing and future registrations. 

As will be clear from the above, I was really taken by the book’s practicality and user-friendliness, and will certainly be using it myself when I need to quickly check a design rights question. 

 

Available in Hardback

Extent: 202 pages

ISBN: 978-1-47432-016-0

Publisher: LexisNexis Butterworths