- Read more about the criteria for design registration applications
- Learn how we can help you with design administration
- Read more about how you monitor and enforce pre-existing design registrations.
Did you spend valuable resources creating a new design? Then you should protect your rights by registering your design.
By registering your design, you can protect the unique presentation and appearance of your product and thereby your business. Accordingly, a design protection differs from a patent in that it does not protect a technical function or method of use.
You can use the design registration to have counterfeits taken off the market and to improve your position in a lawsuit should a third party infringe your rights.
Your design must meet two requirements in order to be granted protection:
- Your design must be new, meaning that no identical design can be on the market at the time you file your application. The novelty requirement is global and objective. There is an exemption to the novelty requirement for design registrations in the EU. From the time you display your design in public, you have a grace period of twelve months to register your design and obtain the same validity as a completely new design.
- Your design must have an individual character, meaning that taken as a whole, your design must be distinguishable from other known designs to a person knowledgeable about products of the relevant nature.
