Andrew Lykiardopoulos KC and Henry Edwards appeared for Safestand in its successful appeal against an Order declaring three UK Registered Designs to be invalid. The Registered Designs relate to self-supporting low-level scaffolding structures known as “builders trestles”. At trial, Safestand (also represented by Andrew Lykiardopoulos KC and Henry Edwards) had succeeded on both infringement and validity in relation to three patents for the builders’ trestles but the designs had been held to be invalid on the grounds that each depicted alternative embodiments and not a unitary design or that the position on what was depicted was not clear.
Lord Justice Arnold, with whom Lady Justice Elisabeth Laing and Lady Justice Asplin agreed, allowed the appeal and held that Safestand was correct that each of the Registered Designs depicted the design of a single modular product. The fact that certain components were illustrated in more than one colour, or not depicted at all in some images, did not mean the designs were depicting alternative embodiments. Further, assuming that lack of clarity was a ground of invalidity (a point which the Court did not need to decide), the Registered Designs were sufficiently clear.