When Design Week asked recently for our thoughts on the current IP system in the UK, Strategy Director Paul McGuigan was happy to help. Here's an excerpt of the article:
The Intellectual Property Office is reviewing the UK’s IP system so we asked designers about their own experiences in accessing and using it.
This June the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) released the government’s responses to a call for views of the UK designs framework. The report also gave an idea of what designers see as shortfalls in the system.
As the government continues to call for views on the design protection system, Design Week asked industry experts about their experience with the current system.
In the words of Paul McGuigan, Strategy Director at ThreeTenSeven:
“From a trademark perspective, the system is slow and complex at times; any proposals to make it faster and more transparent would be welcome. It’s not good for business when it takes a long time to do things like register a simple trademark – a client of ours recently had to wait for months to register a name and logo, holding up the development of products and ultimately the products going on sale.
The more our system can dovetail with that of other territories the better. Sadly, ‘the Brexit effect’ would suggest we’re likely to see the opposite of that. But when it comes to registering a trademark globally , different approaches across territories can really slow things down. We need to see more collaboration globally, not less.
Checking for any similar designs and waiting to see if anyone with similar trademark objects is what takes a lot of the time. AI/image recognition could be a way to improve and modernise the process. A system that can properly analyse new ideas and designs and flag any potential conflicts (while notifying the person whose IP might be infringed) would be a big improvement.”
Read the full article on Design Week.
