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B5.323 Intellectual property—taxation of rights in designs

Product designs may be protected in several ways. If the product is an artistic work in its own right, the original will be protected by copyright (see B5.313), and the copyright owner can prevent the reproduction and supply of infringing copies.

Copyright in a drawing or other two-dimensional work intended to adorn the surface of commercial articles can be used to prevent imitation of the surface pattern or ornament. However, copyright in design drawings made after 31 July 1989 cannot be used to prevent the manufacture of three-dimensional articles to the design or the creation of derivative design drawings by 'reverse engineering'¹.

Designs which consist of the shape or configuration of an article are protected by an unregistered design right. Design right comes into being automatically when a qualifying design is created or when articles