Intellectual property abroad: which of the six UK rights arise on their own?

A bottled-sauce workshop in Cần Thơ is about to sell to UK customers online. The brand name has only been used in Viet Nam and has been filed nowhere. Section 2(2) of the Trade Marks Act 1994 says no proceedings lie "to prevent or recover damages for the infringement of an unregistered trade mark as such" (Trade Marks Act 1994, c.…, 1994). So what protects the name, the label artwork, the bottle shape and the recipe, and which of those protections need an application?

"Bếp Hậu Giang" is a hypothetical I made up; every detail is invented. The post covers UK law as read from the documents named at the end, as of 3 November 2026. It is information, not legal advice.

Which of the six rights arise automatically, and which must be registered?

Copyright, unregistered design rights and trade secrets need no registration. Trade marks (if you want to sue for infringement), patents, registered designs and geographical indications exist only once registered or granted. "Automatic" still carries conditions about who made the thing or where it was first disclosed.

No right protects an idea. Business.gov.uk says you "cannot use intellectual property protections to protect an idea", only your expression of it (Business Growth Service, n.d.). And automatic does not mean easy to prove: for an unregistered design you will need evidence of when you created it (GOV.UK, n.d.).

Why does territory matter if I already hold a right in Viet Nam?

Because it does not carry over. The UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) says IP rights "are territorial", and with protection in one country only, others may be allowed to use your IP elsewhere without infringing (Intellectual Property Office, 2023). The wording of the statutes shows it:

The Paris Convention does not merge the rights: patents granted in different countries are "independent of each other", and so are trade mark registrations (WIPO, n.d.). Territory also moves with politics: EU unregistered Community designs are no longer valid in the UK, and rights that existed before January 2021 were replaced by equivalent UK rights (Intellectual Property Office, 2020).

I have filed in Viet Nam: how long do I have to file in the UK?

Six months for trade marks and designs, twelve for patents. That is Paris priority: a later filing within the window counts as filed on the first filing's date, and is unaffected by events in between such as publishing the invention or selling goods under the mark (WIPO, n.d.). UK law repeats the periods in section 35(1) of the Trade Marks Act, section 14(1) of the Registered Designs Act and section 5(2A)(a) of the Patents Act (Trade Marks Act 1994, c.…, 1994; Registered Designs Act 1949, 12,…, 1949; Patents Act 1977, c. 37, 1977).

Suppose Bếp Hậu Giang files everything first in Viet Nam on 10 March (a hypothetical date). The UK deadline for the mark and the bottle design is 10 September; for a patent, 10 March the following year. Missing it loses the priority date, not the Vietnamese right; for patents only, sections 5(2A)(b) and 5(2B) to (2C) allow a late declaration if the delay was unintentional (Patents Act 1977, c. 37, 1977). I did not read section 55 to check that UK law treats Viet Nam as a "Convention country"; both countries are on WIPO's Paris membership list.

Multi-country routes exist: Madrid for marks, Hague for designs, the PCT for patents (WIPO, n.d.; Intellectual Property Office, 2026; Intellectual Property Office, 2026). The IPO pages are written for UK owners going out, so I used only their description of the treaty mechanics, and I did not check whether Viet Nam belongs to Hague or the PCT.

How are a bottle shape and label artwork protected?

A three-dimensional shape can carry unregistered design right if the designer or the first marketing qualifies (section 213(5)); the appearance can carry a three-year supplementary right if first disclosed in the UK (Copyright, Designs and Patents Act…, 1988; Intellectual Property Office, 2020). For longer cover you register under the Registered Designs Act 1949 (Registered Designs Act 1949, 12,…, 1949).

Design right excludes "surface decoration" (section 213(3)(c)), so label artwork would, on my reading, rely on copyright, the supplementary right or registration (Copyright, Designs and Patents Act…, 1988). Where you disclose first matters: a first disclosure in the EU still leaves 12 months to register in the UK (Intellectual Property Office, 2020), because section 1B(6)(c) disregards the designer's own disclosure in the 12 months before filing when judging novelty (Registered Designs Act 1949, 12,…, 1949). The IPO guidance says UK design right is limited to people resident in, or businesses formed under the laws of, the UK or a "qualifying country" (Intellectual Property Office, 2020). I did not check whether Viet Nam is a "qualifying country" for design right (section 217), as I did not read the Orders that list them.

Recipe or machine: keep it secret or patent it?

A trade secret has no register. Information qualifies only if three conditions in regulation 2 hold together: it is not generally known in the circles that normally handle it, it has commercial value because it is secret, and its holder has taken "reasonable steps under the circumstances" to keep it so (The Trade Secrets (Enforcement, etc.)…, 2018). Business.gov.uk lists concrete steps: restricting access, marking confidential material, using legal agreements and keeping access records (Business Growth Service, n.d.).

A patent needs novelty, and anything made public "whether in the United Kingdom or elsewhere" before the priority date is prior art (section 2(2)). Section 2(4) disregards only narrow cases: disclosure in the six months before filing through breach of confidence, or display at an international exhibition with a statement made on filing (Patents Act 1977, c. 37, 1977). WIPO adds that independent discovery or reverse engineering does not infringe a trade secret, and that a secret is no defensive prior art, so someone who reaches the same invention independently may patent it (WIPO, n.d.). On my reading, what is hard to reverse-engineer suits secrecy; what is exposed by showing the product publicly is hard to keep secret.

Geographical indications: does the Phú Quốc or Buôn Ma Thuột name belong to my company?

No. Defra's guidance says an individual or business does not own a GI: any producer who follows the specification and is verified may use the name, which sets it apart from a trade mark held by one registrant (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, 2024).

The UK register has Vietnamese names. The Phú Quốc page records a PGI in the class fresh fish, molluscs, crustaceans and products derived from them, registered under the UK scheme on 31 December 2020 and originally with the EU on 11 October 2012 (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, 2021). Buôn Ma Thuột is also a PGI, registered on 31 December 2020 with the UK trade agreement as the reason (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, 2021). Defra says the UK GI schemes protect registered names when products are sold in Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales), while Northern Ireland and the EU fall under the EU schemes (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, 2024). Using a registered name means following the specification, being verified, and using the name and logo correctly (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, 2024). When I read it, the Phú Quốc page said the specification was not yet on the site, and I did not read how producers in Viet Nam are verified. Crafts and industrial goods are different: the IPO page of 26 November 2025 tells UK producers they can protect such names by registering a collective or certification trade mark (Intellectual Property Office, 2025).

What should a small workshop do before its first UK sale?

Match each asset to its right, then set the deadline. The table is the hypothetical for Bếp Hậu Giang, and no row is legal advice.

Registering in the UK suits you if you really plan to expand, license or sell there, which is how the IPO's trade mark guidance frames the decision (Intellectual Property Office, 2026). It does not suit you if you are still testing the market, but the cost of waiting remains: without registration others may legally register or use your mark in the market you want to enter.

Going deeper: where does the six-rights map come from, and where does it stop?

The base is the treaties. The Paris Convention (1883) covers patents, marks, designs, indications of source and unfair competition; the Berne Convention (1886) covers literary and artistic works; Madrid has an Agreement (1891) and a Protocol (1989) (WIPO, n.d.; WIPO, n.d.; WIPO, n.d.). The library's six-rights map rests on three UK Acts, covering copyright, trade marks and patents; the rest of this post draws on other sources.

Three limits. "Six" is one way of counting: designs span two regimes, and I left out database right and moral rights. Two sources frame trade secrets differently: WIPO calls them IP rights over confidential information (WIPO, n.d.), while the UK Regulations speak of unlawful acquisition, use and disclosure tied to breach of confidence (reg 3) (The Trade Secrets (Enforcement, etc.)…, 2018); I read no case law, so I cannot say whether UK law treats them as property. And guidance moves: the IPO's trade mark, patent and design pages for going abroad were re-written on 4 June 2026 (Intellectual Property Office, 2026).

What did I read? I read each cited section of the UK statutes in full on legislation.gov.uk (Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988; Trade Marks Act 1994; Patents Act 1977; Registered Designs Act 1949; Trade Secrets Regulations 2018) and not the rest of those texts. I read WIPO's three treaty summaries in full; the Paris and Madrid membership tables in full; for Berne only the UK and Viet Nam rows; and the opening of WIPO's trade secrets page. I read the IPO, Business.gov.uk and Defra pages in full on 3 November 2026. I did not read case law, EU law, the text of the UK-Viet Nam trade agreement, the UK GI regulations or Vietnamese law.