UK Offence Report

Falsely representing a design as a registered Community design

regulation 3(1) of The Community Design Regulations 2005

This offence was read from the text as made, and no revised version was available, so a later revocation could not be ruled out. Check the current text at legislation.gov.uk.

What the provision says

1 It is an offence for

a person falsely to represent that

a design applied to, or incorporated in, any product sold by him is

a registered Community design.

Text as made, from legislation.gov.uk. © Crown copyright, reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.

Who it binds, and what has to be proved

Binds
a person
Conduct
breaching the provision
Fault element
Strict liability
Burden of proof
No statutory defence — prosecution proves everything

The prosecution must prove that the conduct happened. This is a strict liability offence as drafted: the provision uses no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence, so there is no need to show that a person meant to do it, knew about it, or was careless.

Intention, knowledge and carelessness are irrelevant to guilt. They may still matter a great deal to sentence.

The provision states no defence, so the prosecution bears the burden on every element of the offence.

Classifier’s reasoning: no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence in the offence or its provision.

What would breach regulation 3(1)?

These are illustrations, not law. They are generated from the provision’s own words to show the shape of the offence. Whether any particular conduct is caught depends on the full text, on any amendment since, and on the facts.

  1. On these words it is an offence to represent that a design applied to, or incorporated in, any product sold by him is a registered Community design.
  2. Doing what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Community Design Regulations 2005.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
£1,000
Standard scale
Level 3
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

Sentencing

Offences of this kind are usually sentenced under the guidelines below. This is a mapping by subject, not a finding about this provision, and the links go to a search of the Sentencing Council’s own site.

Prosecution figures

No published per-offence figure was found for this provision, and it could not be matched to a Ministry of Justice offence code. Offences created by statutory instrument very largely do not have one. Absence of a figure is not evidence that the offence is unused.

Status and lifecycle

Current status
Status not determined
Made
15 August 2005
In force from
1 October 2005
Extent
Not stated

How this was established: read from the text as made; no revised version available, so later revocation could not be ruled out.

What the instrument is for

(This note is not part of the Regulations) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

These Regulations make provision for the operation of Council Regulation (EC) No. 6/2002 of 12th December 2001 (O.J. No. L 3, 5.1.2002, p.1) on the Community design (“the Community Design Regulation”). Regulation 2 provides a remedy for any person who is aggrieved by groundless threats being made to bring infringement proceedings in relation to Community designs. Regulation 3 creates two new offences related to falsely representing a design as a registered Community design. Regulation 4 creates a privilege for communications between a person who is on the special list of professional design representatives maintained in pursuance of Article 78 of the Community Design Regulation and his client. Regulation 5 in conjunction with the Schedule to these Regulations provides for the Crown use of Community designs in accordance with Article 23 of the Community Designs Regulation. Similar provisions are applied to national unregistered designs under sections 240 to 244 and section 252 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (c. 48) and to registered designs in accordance with the First Schedule to the Registered Designs Act 1949 (c. 88). Regulation 6 amends section 35 of the Registered Designs Act 1949 so that the use of the term “registered” in relation to a design is deemed to mean registered under that Act unless it is shown that it is registered elsewhere than the United Kingdom. A Regulatory Impact Assessment is available. Copies of the assessment have been placed in the libraries of both Houses of Parliament and are also available from the Intellectual Property and Innovation Directorate, The Patent Office, Concept House, Cardiff Road, Newport NP10 8QQ.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

Other offences in the same instrument

How this was identified as an offence

Everything above rests on the judgement that this provision creates a criminal offence, rather than mentioning one. That judgement is made by rule, from the words of the provision, and this is the rule that made it — with a confidence of 0.90.

Basis
the provision says “it is an offence”; the provision says an offence is committed “if” something happens
Confidence
0.90 of 1.00

A provision that states a penalty for an offence created elsewhere can read very like one that creates an offence, and the rules can mistake the one for the other. If the text quoted above sets a penalty for something made an offence by another provision, treat the classification on this page with that in mind, and read the instrument.

Check the source