UK Investment Immigration focuses on UK laws and regulations: The UK Intellectual Property Bill 2013-2014 has been approved by the House of Lords and is currently awaiting royal assent, which is the final stage of parliamentary approval before the bill becomes law.
Members of the House of Lords believe that a series of amendments from the House of Commons will prevent unintended consequences arising from the simplified eligibility requirements for unregistered design rights in the UK. All changes were made without a vote, and the timeline for royal assent has not been clarified.
The main purpose of this legislation is to "simplify and clarify" the protection and ownership of design rights, support small and medium-sized enterprises, while imposing new penalties for the replication of registered designs in the UK and providing a new design opinion service.
It extends criminal sanctions to registered design rights but does not include unregistered design rights.
Additionally, it allows for the establishment of a unified patent court and the international sharing of patent information.
The bill is not without controversy, with Article 13 being the most "contentious factor" in the bill. This provision was amended to clarify that the replication of a registered design, which suggests a sentence of ten years imprisonment, must be "intentional" rather than "deliberate," as "intentional" is more familiar to courts based on the elements of the crime, "thus less likely to cause legal disputes."
