UK design protection review with policy considerations
This report looks at how design protection in the UK is being used and makes suggestions for potential reform.
Documents
Details
This report was originally commissioned in 2025.
The HTML document is an executive summary, the full report is available on request in PDF format from research@ipo.gov.uk.
Purpose
This report presents the findings of academic research by Professor Bruce Tether and Professor Estelle Declaye that was independently commissioned by the UK Policy and Evidence Centre (PEC). Drawing on legal analysis, registration data, case law, and a survey of 501 design-active UK firms, the report assesses how design rights are understood, used, and enforced in practice. The report also identifies opportunities for reform.
This report was commissioned before the 2025 consultation on changes to the UK designs framework and so does not reflect stakeholder views gathered during that consultation. Nor does it necessarily reflect the views of the UK Government and the Intellectual Property Office. The government’s response to the 2025 consultation will be published later this year.
Key findings
1. The designs sector is economically significant. The UK design economy is large, and comparable in scale to the patent-intensive technology sector in some regards. Yet design protection, particularly registered design rights, appears underused, even in highly design-intensive industries.
2. The design protection system is complex. The UK currently operates:
- two unregistered design rights (UK UDR and Supplementary UDR)
- registered design rights
- overlapping protection through copyright
This complexity can create confusion for designers and firms. Survey evidence showed low awareness and poor understanding of unregistered design rights, despite their central policy role in protecting design investment.
3. Registration has increased sharply but unevenly and with risks. Since Brexit, design registrations have surged to ~70,000–80,000 designs annually. While this reflects increased accessibility, registrations are:
- highly diverse, and are not being confined to a few sectors or classes
- still lightly used by most UK firms protecting designs (typically 1–2 designs per firm)
- used in ways that suggest strategic or abusive registration, particularly on online marketplaces where they are used to block competitors
4. Alleged infringement found to be widespread. Around one quarter of surveyed firms reported recent copying of their designs, but many had been able to resolve disputes without significant expenditure or time.