Posted on 01/10/2008
The government has recently introduced the Regulatory Improvement Bill into Parliament. This Bill contains a number of miscellaneous provisions. Part 3 of the Bill will amend section 12 of the Designs Act 1953 to provide for the restoration of design registrations that lapse through non-payment of a renewal fee. Consequential amendment is made to the Copyright Act 1994. The full test of Part 3 of the Bill is available online.
The Bill will not be passed prior to the General Election, which will be held on 8 November 2008. This means the new provision is unlikely to come into force until some time in 2009, at the earliest.
For some years now, Baldwins has been pressing for a full review of the Designs Act, which is now very out of date. While this is still not on the government's plan of work, we welcome this correction of a serious deficiency in the current legislation.
For further information please contact Mike Hawkins.