Design searches

Online search facilities at the UK and other Designs Registries mean that it is now possible to search for a particular design, whether to check if it's new enough to be registrable or to see if you have the freedom to use it.  These searches are not yet as straightforward or as reliable as patent searches, but they are becoming increasingly effective as time goes on.

We can organise such searches for you, and we can also arrange searches for registered designs in the name of a particular competitor.

Often you can supplement these by doing your own checks for instance on the internet, in trade journals and through competitors' product literature.

We can also organise basic watching searches and status watches, again for particular competitors or types of design.

Note however that searching official databases such as the UK Designs Register will not reveal unregistered design rights which could still be very relevant to your business.

Keeping an eye on your competitors' activities, on their marketing literature and press releases and web sites, will help keep you informed of the design rights they may own.  If you're considering exploiting, and perhaps protecting, a design of your own, show us the closest similar designs you're aware of and we can advise on freedom to use, and/or registrability, on that basis.  As a general rule it is never advisable to copy even a part of someone else's product design.