Brexit and the UK design registration database – cloning process almost (but not yet fully) complete

As of early January, the UKIPO had completed the cloning process for UK design registrations stemming from affected EU design registrations before the EUIPO. These cloned UK design registrations have therefore been searchable on the official UK design register, available at www.registered-design.service.gov.uk/find, for some time now. For completeness, the number for these cloned UK design registrations is the same as the underlying EU design registration number, but prefixed with an initial "9":

For cloned UK design registrations stemming from an affected EU designation of an international Hague design registration, the UKIPO has now largely completed the updating of the UK design register to include these corresponding cloned UK design registrations. Accordingly, the number for these now searchable cloned UK design registrations is the same as the underlying Hague design registration number, but prefixed with an initial "8", and suffixed with three zeros at the end of the number:

For the sake of completeness, any cloned UK design registrations stemming from an earlier Hague design registration will now be completely separate from the Hague system going forward.

At this stage, the UKIPO has still to fully complete its cloning process of all the affected international Hague design registrations. As a result, there a number of cloned UK design registrations, stemming from an EU designation of a Hague design registration, which are yet to appear on the UK design register. The UKIPO is aware of this, but is yet to make a formal announcement as to when these remaining cloned UK design registrations will be available for viewing/searching on the UK design register.

For those cloned UK design registrations which are searchable however, at the time of writing at least some of these cloned UK design registrations may also be found via the EUIPO DesignView database.

As previously reported, the above cloning process by the UKIPO is only in respect of EU design registrations which were fully published as of the end of the 31 December 2020, and in respect of EU designations from a Hague design registrations which were published and deemed accepted by the EUIPO as of the end of the 31 December 2020. Accordingly, for all other pending design registrations relating to the EU as of that date, these pending EU design matters will need to be re-pursued, at cost, before the UKIPO as a fresh UK registered design application, and no later than 30 September 2021, to ultimately maintain corresponding design registration protection in the UK.

For those needing to re-pursue such a fresh UK registered design application, whilst some may be keen to pursue this application sooner rather than later, there may nonetheless be important strategic reasons as to why it may not be appropriate to apply for this UK registered design application until closer to the 30 September 2021 deadline. Conscious of this, and for a better understanding as to when any such UK registered design application may be best applied for depending on the circumstances of your case, please do not hesitate to contact one of the members of the D Young & Co design team who would be pleased to advise.