MARQUES has filed a response to the design survey launched by the UK Intellectual Property Office (UK IPO). The survey is a precursor to a Design Consultation which will take place this summer.

The response was prepared by a sub-team of the MARQUES Designs Team, the Corporate Focus Group and the Executive with the support of the secretariat

The MARQUES response included the following points:

• The need for EU-UK harmonization remains great to reduce unnecessary complexity, uncertainty and costs for businesses.
• MARQUES strongly recommends aligning the UK design deferment period with the EU's 30-month term, rather than maintaining the current 12-month UK period.
• MARQUES sees a number of clearly invalid designs being registered, which might disrupt the market and unfairly limit competition.
• MARQUES strongly supports the creation of an expedited invalidity proceedings for straightforward cases, or when there is evidence of bad faith.
• MARQUES does not consider the introduction of an opposition period for registered designs to be appropriate.
• MARQUES supports the establishment of clear rules regarding design rights for 3D-printed products to protect against unauthorized reproduction.
• MARQUES supports comprehensive protection for Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs), animated designs, icons and other digital design elements, regardless of their technical means of creation or display method.
• MARQUES does not support extending criminal sanctions to unregistered design infringement cases.

In addition to filing this response, the MARQUES Designs Team encouraged Corporate Members to respond to the survey directly.  

The survey deadline was 1 April 2025. The UK IPO is not expected to publish a response to the survey but it should inform the consultation.

The MARQUES Designs Team is planning a response to the forthcoming consultation and will share further updates with MARQUES members in due course.

For more information, please one of the UK consultation sub-team of the MARQUES Designs Team: Inga George, Sally Britton, Philippa Bailey, John Coldham or Serena Totino.