Statutory guidance

Registered Designs Act and Rules

The Registered Designs Act 1949 is the current law for the registration of designs and the protection of registered designs in the UK

From:

Intellectual Property Office

Published:

13 March 2013

Last updated:

18 September 2024

Show all updates

18 September 2024
Unofficial consolidated version of the Registered Designs Act and Unofficial consolidated version of the rules (2006) updated.
22 April 2022
Updated both documents to fix formatting issues and reflect consequential amendments made by other Acts and regulations.
2 February 2021
Updated with changes made by legislation which came into force at the end of the transition period and 1 January 2021.
3 September 2018
Unofficial Consolidation Design Rules Document updated.
25 February 2015
Updated version of the Registered Designs Act 1949.
1 October 2014
Updated version of the Registered Designs Act 1949.
13 March 2013
First published.

Documents

PDF, 721 KB, 76 pages

PDF, 371 KB, 36 pages

The unofficial consolidated version of the Act incorporates changes made since the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 came into force.

The most recent amendments, which came into force on 24th May 2024, include those made by:

The Intellectual Property (Exhaustion of Rights) (Amendment) Regulations 2023 (SI 2023/1287)
Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (c. 13)

The latest update to the above version of the Registered Designs Rules 2006 and the Registered Designs (Fees) Rules 2006 took place on 1 August 2024.