▌ A. DESIGN PORTFOLIO AUDIT
A Systematic Review of Your Entire Design Asset Position
A design portfolio audit is a structured, comprehensive review of all industrial design registrations and pending applications held by a business — assessing their legal status, commercial relevance, geographic coverage, ownership integrity, and strategic alignment with the business's current and planned activities. It is both a risk management exercise and a strategic planning tool.
What a Portfolio Audit Assesses
- Registration status: systematically confirming which designs are currently active, which have lapsed, which are pending examination, and which are approaching their renewal deadline — across all jurisdictions in the portfolio.
- Coverage gaps: identifying product lines, geographic markets, or design variants that are not currently covered by existing registrations, and recommending a targeted new filing programme to address the gaps.
- Ownership integrity: verifying that all designs are legally owned by the correct entity — the operating company, the IP holding entity, or the specified group member — and identifying any gaps in the chain of title requiring remediation.
- Renewal risk: identifying all registrations approaching their renewal deadline within the next 12 months and recommending timely action to avoid inadvertent lapse.
- Commercial relevance: assessing whether existing designs are aligned with the business's current product portfolio and commercial strategy — identifying registrations that are no longer commercially active and may be candidates for cost-saving abandonment.
- Valuation indicators: identifying the highest-value designs in the portfolio based on commercial importance, market exposure, and enforcement potential, for prioritisation in the renewal and monitoring programme.
Portfolio Audit Deliverable
We deliver a comprehensive written audit report covering:
- Complete design register schedule: all registrations, their legal status, jurisdiction, renewal dates, ownership records, and any encumbrances or licensing arrangements
- Coverage gap analysis: a mapped analysis of product lines and markets not protected by current registrations, with specific filing recommendations
- Risk register: a prioritised list of risk flags — lapsed registrations, near-term renewal deadlines, ownership gaps, and enforcement vulnerabilities — with recommended remediation actions
- Strategic recommendations: portfolio rationalisation opportunities, priority renewal actions, and a proposed new filing programme aligned to current commercial priorities
A design portfolio audit should be conducted at least every 2–3 years, before any material commercial transaction, and immediately after any significant corporate restructuring. Ownership gaps and lapsed registrations discovered during a transaction are substantially more expensive to address than those identified and remediated proactively.
▌ B. IP DUE DILIGENCE FOR COMMERCIAL TRANSACTIONS
Design Due Diligence in M&A, Investment, and Franchise
In acquisitions, investment rounds, and franchise arrangements involving design-intensive businesses — manufacturers, consumer product companies, fashion brands, furniture designers, packaging specialists — the design IP portfolio is a primary commercial asset that requires rigorous structured assessment. Inaccurate or incomplete due diligence on design rights creates material post-transaction risk.
What Our Design IP Due Diligence Covers
- Ownership verification: establishing the full chain of title for each design registration from the original application to the current owner — including all recorded assignments, corporate restructuring events, and jurisdictional recordal.
- Registration status: independently confirming that all design registrations are currently in force, that all renewal fees are paid and up to date, and that no lapse risk exists within the transaction timeline.
- Encumbrances: identifying all licences, sub-licences, assignments, pledges, charges, or other encumbrances affecting the design registrations — assessing whether these transfer with the portfolio and their commercial impact.
- Infringement exposure: assessing whether any of the target's designs are subject to pending or threatened cancellation proceedings, validity challenges, or active third-party infringement claims.
- FTO assessment: evaluating whether the target's current products may infringe third-party registered designs in the key commercial markets — identifying any enforcement risk that could adversely affect the business post-transaction.
- Contractual review: reviewing all relevant employment contracts, contractor agreements, agency agreements, and commissioning arrangements to confirm that design ownership has been effectively and legally transferred to the target entity.
- Dispute and litigation history: identifying any historical or current design infringement proceedings — whether as claimant or defendant — and assessing any residual legal or commercial risk.
| Due Diligence Report Section | Content |
|---|
| Executive Summary | Risk rating (Red / Amber / Green), key findings, and critical pre-closing actions for transaction decision-makers |
| Design Register Schedule | Full status, ownership, renewal, and encumbrance data for all reviewed designs across all jurisdictions |
| Chain of Title Analysis | Complete ownership history for each registration; identification of any title gaps or unrecorded transfers |
| Renewal and Status Risk | Near-term renewal risk report; lapsed registrations; reinstatement feasibility assessment |
| Infringement & FTO Risk | Third-party design rights potentially affecting the target's products; pending cancellation or opposition proceedings |
| Contractual IP Ownership Review | Assessment of employment and contractor agreements; gaps in assignment provisions; recommendations |
| Recommendations | Specific pre-closing conditions; post-closing remediation actions; conditions to completion or price adjustment |
▌ C. DESIGN OWNERSHIP VERIFICATION
Establishing Clean Legal Title
Design ownership disputes are among the most commercially disruptive IP issues encountered in business transactions and enforcement proceedings. The registered owner of a design at the national registry is not always the party with the legal right to own and exploit that design — and the gap between registry records and actual legal entitlement is discovered at the worst possible time: during a transaction, during litigation, or during an enforcement action against a competitor.
Common Design Ownership Issues We Identify and Resolve
- Designs registered in the name of an individual founder or director — rather than the operating company — creating a title gap between the individual's personal asset and the company's commercial exploitation of the design
- Designs created by external freelancers, design agencies, or contractors without a written assignment agreement transferring ownership to the commissioning business
- Post-acquisition designs that were legally registered in the name of the target company before acquisition but were never formally recorded as transferred to the acquirer
- Designs held by a former corporate entity — a pre-merger company, a deregistered subsidiary, or a restructured business unit — that were never updated in the design registry records
- Joint design ownership situations arising from collaborative development, where one co-owner's identity, location, or consent cannot be established
Ownership Verification and Remediation Process
- Registry verification: independently confirm the registered owner in each jurisdiction for each design in the portfolio.
- Historical chain of title review: examine all assignments, transfers, and corporate events recorded against each registration since the original application.
- Creation records examination: review design creation documentation — original designer briefs, design contracts, commissioning letters, internal project records, and version history.
- Contractual review: assess all employment, contractor, and agency agreements for effective IP assignment provisions.
- Gap identification and remediation: where ownership gaps are identified, prepare and execute corrective assignment documentation and file recordal applications at the relevant registries to establish clean, legally defensible title.
▌ D. COMMERCIAL RISK ASSESSMENT
Mapping the Practical Risk Landscape for Your Design Portfolio
A commercial risk assessment evaluates the realistic practical risks facing a business's design portfolio — addressing the probability and potential financial impact of the principal design IP risks in the context of the business's specific products, markets, competitors, and commercial activities.
Risk Categories Assessed
- Product infringement risk: the probability that existing or planned products infringe third-party registered designs in the business's key commercial markets — and the potential commercial consequences
- Design registration vulnerability: the degree to which the business's own registered designs are susceptible to invalidity or cancellation challenges based on identified prior art or procedural grounds
- Copying and imitation risk: the likelihood of competitor product copying in the relevant markets, based on industry copying rates and the competitive environment
- Portfolio concentration risk: whether the business's commercial product protection depends disproportionately on a small number of design registrations — creating a single point of failure in the IP programme
- Geographic coverage risk: key commercial markets — particularly where manufacturing occurs or where the largest revenue is generated — that are not currently covered by design registrations
- Renewal risk: commercially active designs approaching their renewal deadline that have not yet been scheduled for renewal — representing an immediate and preventable risk of loss