if you have taken the step to start a business and it takes off, more orders are flowing in but you feel that you really need to up your game and make your company stand out when advertising or flashing your wares on socials, as it were. There are certain things that need to be looked at from a legal point of view. Once you come up with that perfect design or logo, you first must check thoroughly that it is unique and that you are free to use it. Ensure that no one anywhere else has that or very similar design anywhere in their exsting titles. After this rigorous check, then it makes sense to register your design so that it is easier to prove that the design is legally yours to use and when you created it. This will be enormously helpful if anyone tries to copy or use your design without your permission or to fake your goods. However, before registering said design, it is essential you check that it is the right protection for your particular intellectual property. The registration lasts for five years and must be reregistered every five years to keep it fully protected – up to a maximum of 25 years.

What can be registered must be considered. The deisgn must be new and the design can include the physical shape; the configuration (especially if the deisgn consists of different parts and how they are arranged together). If it involves a specific decoration or colour and if it includes a pattern. There is a list, even longer, of what you cannot and must not try to register too!