United Kingdom Designs (Protection) Act (Revised 2020)

Summary

This is the revised (as at 1 January 2020) text of the United Kingdom Designs (Protection) Act, a Virgin Islands statute originally enacted in 1930 and amended in 1934 and 1957. It extends the effect of design registrations made in the United Kingdom into the Virgin Islands, giving UK-registered design proprietors equivalent rights and privileges in the Territory without a separate local registration process.

• Automatic extension of protection: A design registered in the United Kingdom under the Patents and Designs Acts 1907 and 1919 (or successor legislation) is treated as if the UK certificate of registration had been extended to the Virgin Islands, giving the registered proprietor equivalent rights there.
• Limit on damages for innocent infringement: A registered proprietor cannot recover damages from a defendant who proves they were unaware, and had no reasonable means of becoming aware, of the design's registration at the time of infringement, though this does not affect the availability of injunctions.
• High Court declaratory power: Any person whose interests are prejudicially affected may apply to the High Court for a declaration that exclusive design rights have not been acquired in the Territory, on grounds equivalent to those that could cancel the UK registration, including prior publication of the design in the Territory before UK registration.

The Act imposes no filing, licensing or reporting obligations on regulated financial services entities; it is a substantive intellectual property statute governing the recognition and enforcement of UK design registrations within the Virgin Islands.

Applies to

registered proprietors of designs registered in the United Kingdom, persons alleged to have infringed a registered design, persons whose interests are prejudicially affected by a design registration