With effect from May 1, 1999 the British Patent Office no longer carries out a search for prior art as a part of the design examination process, although the official fee remains the same. This change in practice has been taken because it was felt that the search was not particularly meaningful since it searched only UK prior designs. Under the European Designs Directive the novelty test will be based on designs published in Europe and the Patent Office feels unable to incorporate European-wide designs into their database.

The British Patent Office is putting design images on their website (www.patent.gov.uk) so that the onus is placed upon applicants to make their own searches.