h the ambition to give registered design right holder equivalent protection across the EU states, national registered design law has been effectively harmonised by directives . The EU intervention does not go beyond some other forms of design protection modified in CDPA 1988, i.e. the artistic copyright and UK UDR remain effective. In the UK, the RDA 1949 remains, as the legislation governing register design however, it subsists only as a shell. A unitary registered design right came into force in 2003 , as to prevent the impediment of free movement of goods that may potentially created due to the inconsistent protection conferred by the various national laws. The registered design law in the UK are almost entirely determined at the community level. It is for the national court to decide the validity of infringements. Different from copyright law, thereby the IP rights being harmonised at the highest community level, including a single term of copyright and harmonisation on most exclusive rights .

Hargreaves recognise the importance of harmonisation, he lobbied to strengthen design protection and to harmonise more IP rights in the UK, thus, incentivise innovation in the design industry . On the other hand, Cornish, Llewelyn and Aplin comment that the harmonisation take effect merely on registered design has left the general design law ‘hopelessly uncoordinated’, it is unwise to leave other forms of national cumulative protection, including national UDR remain untouched, while the rights create trade distortion in the single market. In other words, a designer may receive different level of protections throughout the EU community; mala fide third parties may take advantages of this loophole to create counterfeit items and selling them in some EU states, where design protection are weakened. Interestingly, those national cumulative rights may in fact be more reliable to designers. Trimmer and Parsons argue that unregistered design may be a better alternative for design protection in cases that involve registered design, as infringement on unregistered design are in times easier to be established .

In the case of Kohler Mira Ltd v Bristan Group Ltd , the court found infringement to UK UDRs based on knowledge, even though infringement was not proven itself. The case concerned of both registered and unregistered design rights subsisting in electric shower unit. The court accepted the evidence of an in