Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to review the Intellectual Property Office’s design registration fee structure to lower the cost for individual designers and small businesses filing single-design applications; and what assessment they have made of the impact on the overall size and usability of the register of the current discounts for bulk electronic filings.

Fees are reviewed regularly to ensure the UK intellectual property framework remains accessible. The recent increase in statutory fees was a general uplift which did not alter the structure of designs fees.

The outcome of the recent consultation on changes to the UK designs framework may require a re-examination of the fee structure for designs, however the government is aware that users of the UK designs system value the low-cost of registering designs compared to other jurisdictions.