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Friday, March 03, 2006

I Forgot this UK Consultation on Design Law.

Well, I had thought that with various recent posts I would have reported on all public IP consultations currently open. However, I was in error: There is still

another UK consulation on Design Law. In order to precise, it is not a new consultation but it had

failed due to lack of public response:

"[...] An informal consultation was carried out from 31 October 2005 to 12 January 2006 and the proposals in this consultation are informed by the responses to that consultation, and by comments made during the public consultation on the modernisation of the UK designs registration system . Despite using a range of means to alert customers to the fees proposals (including a notice on the front page of the Office's website), only six responses were received in respect of all registered designs fees. While we have considered all of the comments made in respect of the new fees, we are not confident that this low number of responses is necessarily a reflection of our whole customer base. [...]"

The consultation is now

open until May 31, 2006. The objectives are as follows:

"2.1 The Patent Office seeks to achieve the following objectives through these proposals:

2.2 To provide the Office with a fee structure to enable the new designs registration system to be implemented on 1 October 2006.

2.3 To provide designers with a more flexible and affordable option for the registration of designs in the belief that making it easier to protect designs will act as a spur to innovation."

The full consultation document is available

here.

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Design Law

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