Draft Designs (International Registration of Industrial Designs) Order 2017

Michael Fabricant Excerpts

Wednesday 20th December 2017 General Committees

[The Minister for Universities, Science, Research and Innovation (Joseph Johnson)]

I beg to move,

That the Committee has considered the draft Designs (International Registration of Industrial Designs) Order 2017.

The order modifies the Registered Designs Act 1949 and the Registered Designs Rules 2006, and is an essential step in the UK’s ratification of the Geneva Act of the Hague agreement for registration of industrial designs. The Hague system for international registration of industrial designs provides a means of obtaining protection for designs in multiple countries, or with intergovernmental organisations, through a single application filed at the World Intellectual Property Organisation. Membership of the treaty is becoming more popular, and recent signatories include Japan, Russia, the US and South Korea. There are currently 67 members, including the European Union and 18 EU member states.

The Government want the UK to be the best place in the world to do business. The promotion of strong and effective international IP regimes can reduce the risks of trading internationally for UK businesses and create further export opportunities. UK designers and design-led businesses are part of a global industry and, as such, it is essential that they have the option to protect their IP cost-effectively when trading abroad. By joining the Hague system, UK businesses, and especially small and medium-sized enterprises, that wish to have designs registered across multiple countries, will have a simpler, more cost-effective method for obtaining and managing their rights. Businesses will be able to save money on design registrations and protect their IP with greater administrative ease.

The order will come into force when UK ratification of the Hague agreement with the World Intellectual Property Organisation is complete. The order is essential to make the required modifications to the Registered Designs Act 1949 and the Registered Designs Rules 2006 to give effect to the Hague agreement in UK law.

[Michael Fabricant (Lichfield) (Con)]

Is my hon. Friend aware that the Design Council very much supports this legislation? The United Kingdom is probably the major generator in the world of international design, from Issigonis’s Mini car to the present day, and protection for British design is imperative to ensure that continues in the future.

[Joseph Johnson]

My hon. Friend is entirely right. I know from speaking to designers the importance of design to the UK economy. He mentioned the Design Council, which has produced a study that found that the design economy generated no less than £72 billion in gross value added to the UK economy. Its importance should certainly not be underestimated.

Ratification of the Hague agreement forms part of a broader designs modernisation portfolio intended to refine and streamline the designs legal framework, so that the UK can provide a first-class, fit-for-purpose system for our design-led companies.