Commentary Part 1: DESIGNS Section 6: UK Registered designs – Ownership of design and application for registration
24.Subsection (1) amends section 2 of the RDA so that, in the absence of a contract to the contrary, where a design has been commissioned, the designer will be the initial owner of the design, and not the person who commissioned it. This brings UK law into line with the EU Regulation. It also aligns the treatment of UK designs with the way commissioned works are treated under UK copyright law, and means that the default position is that the initial ownership of closely related rights will no longer end up with different parties.
25.This subsection is consistent with changes being made to the unregistered design right by section 2.
26.Subsection (2) amends section 3 of the RDA by removing the requirement for the applicant for the registration of a design to be the person claiming to be the proprietor of the design. This brings UK law into line with the way the EU Regulation deals with applications for registered designs.