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Need a Product Designer?
Helpful Tips
Do I have to identify the designer?
It is possible to waive the name of the designer when filing a European Community Design, but you should be sure that you have the rights to the design
Episode 4: Registered Designs vs Patents: What’s Actually More Powerful?
Real stories. Real lessons. The protection your business needs.
This episode is aimed at founders, product designers, in-house teams and growing businesses that want to protect the visual identity of their products properly and avoid costly mistakes. Huge value to any business owner. Watch and learn!
In this episode of Figure 1: an IP conversation, Fredrick Noble, an experienced Patent Attorney and IP Litigator, breaks down the role of registered designs (also called Design Patents in the USA) in the wider IP landscape, and answers the provocative question: can registered designs be more powerful than patents?
Patents protect how something works (technical innovation). Registered designs protect how it looks (appearance).
But in a competitive market, appearance can be just as commercially valuable as technical innovation.
Through practical examples and well-known court cases, including the Trunki dispute and Apple’s design battle with Samsung, the conversation highlights how small decisions at the filing stage can have major consequences years later. As a business owner, you need to know this!
Frederick explains:
- What registered designs protect (and the limits around technical function)
- Why the images you file completely define your scope of protection
- Lessons from the Trunki case and what went wrong
- How to use multiple filings to strengthen and widen protection
- The 12-month grace period and when it can help
- When to file, and why timing matters if patents are involved
- How infringement is assessed and what “overall impression” really means
- The commercial value of designs compared with unregistered rights
Video Time Stamps:
00:00 – Intro
00:55 – What are registered designs and what are they for?
03:30 – How do you get a registered design?
04:43 – Examples of cases where designers have lost out
08:45 – How do you get the broadest protection
11:41 – Does the cost increase if you are filing for multiple designs?
11:57 – Does it need to be a new product to get registered?
13:29 – If you’re selling the product are you too late to get a valid registration?
15:52 – What are the disadvantages?
17:21 – Case example involving the iPad design
20:00 – Once you have the design protected what does it cover?
24:56 – If you decide not to register and someone copies you, what can you do?
26:53 – Can registered designs be more powerful then patents?
29:11 – Outro

