The UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) is consulting on possible changes to the UK design framework with the aims of improving design validity, simplifying the regime, and protecting emerging forms of design.

Questions being considered are focussed around the following:

How to ensure registered designs are valid?

Currently the UKIPO does not examine registered designs for novelty and individual character on filing. This allows for fast registration (often within a matter of days) which makes UK design filings desirable. However, it has the drawback that third parties are left in doubt as to whether a registered design is indeed valid (and places a burden on third parties to request invalidation if they believe a design is not valid).

One option being considered is to introduce search and examination measures, for example such as:

• A two-stage system (similarly to that used for Australian designs), where a design can publish with a ‘partially registered’ status, with the design owner then required to apply for a search before enforcing a design, and with the option for third parties to also request a search
• Powers for the UK patent office to perform search in limited circumstances when lack of novelty or individual character is suspected (for example upon spotting suspicious behaviour such as re-filing existing designs)

There is also the possibility of introducing ‘Bad Faith’ provisions to prevent malicious filings (e.g. refiling previously invalidated designs, or filing an application to a photograph of another company’s product), or introducing a period for ‘opposition’ or ‘observations’ to be filed before designs are registered, or provisions for the registrar to raise late objections after registration.

How to handle deferred designs?

Currently the UKIPO allows deferment of the registration and publication of a UK design for up to 12 months. When deferment is requested, no details concerning the design are available publicly.

In comparison, EU designs can be deferred for 30 months, and patents are not published until 18 months after filing.

One feature of the UK deferment system is that acts performed by third parties between filing and registration of a design cannot be pursued for infringement, but an infringement action can be pursued for acts that are performed after the design has published. No ‘prior use’ defence is available, and so third parties can be stung with having to stop using a design that they weren’t previously aware of.

The UKIPO is considering whether the deferment period for UK designs should be changed (e.g. extended to 18 months), although this might increase uncertainty for third parties. To offset this, it is possible that (limited) filing details might be published (e.g. the applicant and representative’s name, and classification data) to provide some notice to third parties. Additionally, it is being considered whether to introduce prior use provisions for deferred designs.

New forms of design – GUIs and animated designs

Currently anyone wanting to protect an animated design is required to file still/snapshot representations of the animations. However, such representations can face objections that they relate to multiple designs due to different visual appearances.

The UKIPO is now considering whether to allow other file formats (e.g. video or CAD), and possibly allow descriptions that clarify how the design is to be interpreted.

It is also being considered whether the definition of a design should be updated in legislation, to clarify that it can include animations and transitions (similar to the recent changes to EU design legislation).

What about computer-generated designs?

Currently UK registered designs must have a human author. In circumstances where the design is computer generated, the person who made the arrangements necessary for the creation of the design will be considered the author.

There is a question over whether designs created solely by a computer (e.g. using AI) should be permitted to be registered (and how that would be enforced), and whether for example providing an appropriate prompt is sufficient to render you an ‘author’. This will certainly be an interesting space to watch!

Other

The consultation is also considering other elements, such as whether the UKIPO’s current search offering is useful (which, on request, performs a search for identical registered designs), harmonising response deadlines, removing the ability to file physical specimens, requirements for filing priority documents, changes to unregistered design rights and supplementary design rights and clarifying their overlap with copyright, disclosure requirements in the UK and EU post-brexit, and whether design cases could be heard in the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court’s (IPEC) small claims court.

For those interested in reading the consultation in full, details can be found here.

The deadline for replying to the consultation is 27 November 2025. The Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys will be filing a response, but all stakeholders – from individual designers and small businesses to large enterprises and legal experts – are invited to engage with the consultation.

Changes may yet take a while to come into existence, potentially after the year 2028.