Essential Facts about Design

1. Why is it necessary to protect a design?
2. What is a design?
3. To which products does industrial design apply?
4. How can an industrial design be protected?
5. How can industrial design be internationally protected?

Design Registration Procedure

1. Who can file an application for design registration?
2. Is it mandatory to appoint an attorney for the filing of the application?
3. When does the procedure for design registration begin?
4. What is a priority right?
5. Which elements should a duly filed application for design registration comprise?
a) A request for design registration
b) A design description
c) A photograph or a drawing of the design
d) A power of attorney

6. What are the stages and duration of the design registration procedure?
After the applicant has filed an application for registration of design right, staff working in the Filing Office of the Intellectual Property Office will examine whether such application contains all above listed essential elements, that is, they will examine whether the application was duly filed. If an element of the application is missing, such application will not be entered into the Registry of Applications for Registration of Design Rights. If an application contains all essential elements it will be entered into the Registry of Applications, where it will be assigned a D-number, and the filing date will be indicated. That date is at the same time the date of acquisition of the priority right regarding the deposited subject matter of protection. After that, an application which has been assigned a D-number is sent for examination to the Section for Design and Indications of Geographical Origin. Due to the existence of the priority right, a filed application for registration of design right is not processed until 6 months after the filing date. The priority right enables the applicant to file that application in other member states of the Paris Union, benefiting from the legal assumption that he filed the application in those other countries on the same date on which he filed it in his own country. After the processing of the application for registration of design right has commenced in the Section for Design and Indications of Geographical Origin, it is once again examined whether it was duly filed. If it turns out that the application was not duly filed, the Office will call on the applicant by means of the examination result report, to correct the application in a defined time limit (in most of the cases, this time limit is one month). The reasons for finding the application not duly filed are related mostly to the description or a graphic presentation of the subject matter of protection. For that reason, in the Instructions on the Methodology for Preparing and Filing Applications for the Registration of Design Right, we have provided examples of properly drafted descriptions and examples of duly made graphical presentations for both three-dimensional and two-dimensional designs. If the applicant fails to correct the application as the Office suggested doing in the set time limit, his application will be rejected. If the applicant corrects the application as the Office suggested doing in the set time limit, the Office will move on to examining the novelty and individual character of the deposited design. A deposited design will be considered new if no identical design has been made available to the public 12 months before the filing date of the application for the registration of that design, or if there is no previously filed application for the registration of an identical design. Designs are deemed to be identical if their features differ only in immaterial details. A design will be considered to have an individual character if the overall impression it produces on an informed user differs from the overall impression produced on such a user by any other design which has been made available to the public before the filing date of the application for registration or the date of the registered priority right of the opposed design. If the Office has established that there are reasons for which the application does not meet the requirements for registration of design right, it will notify the applicant in writing about the grounds for non-registration of design right and it will give him an appropriate time limit for a response. If the applicant fails to respond to the Office, or if he responds, but the Office decides to maintain its previously expressed opinion despite that, the application will be refused. In such a case, the applicant may institute administrative dispute proceedings by filing a lawsuit with the Supreme Court of Serbia, which will take a final decision on that issue. If the subject matter of protection meets the statutory requirements for registration of the design, the Office will call on the applicant to pay the prescribed fee for the registration of the design in the specified time limit (in most of the case, it is 10 days). If the applicant fails to pay the prescribed fee, or if he fails to pay it in the prescribed time limit, the Office will reject the application.

If the applicant pays the prescribed fee in the defined time limit the Office will enter the registered design right, together with the prescribed data, into the Registry of Designs, and the holder/owner of the design will be issued a certificate of registration for his design.

7. When has a design been created and how long is its validity period?
8. How to renew the validity of a design?

Other Relevant Questions

1. Can the appearance of a design be subsequently changed in the course of the design registration procedure?
2. What should the applicant do if the name of the applicant is changed, or his address, that is, his name and address, or if the right from the application is assigned to another natural or legal person, during the procedure for design registration?
3. Which applications are examined in an expedited procedure?