Essential Facts about Design

1. Why is it necessary to protect a design?

2. What is a design?
A design is a three-dimensional or two-dimensional appearance of an entire product, or of its part, which is determined by its visual characteristics, in particular by lines, contours, colors, shape, texture and materials of which the product is made or with which it is decorated, and the combination thereof.

The appearance of the product is understood to mean a complete visual impression which the product makes on an informed consumer or user.

An informed consumer or user is an individual who is regularly in contact with the product concerned.

A product is an industrial or handicraft item, including the parts intended to be assembled into a complex product, the packaging of the product, graphic symbols and typographic typefaces, but excluding computer programs.

A three-dimensional design is a creation which comprises three-dimensional characteristic features, such as a new model of a car or furniture, etc.

A two-dimensional design comprises two-dimensional characteristic features (an image, pattern, matrix, ornament, configuration, etc.)
The Law on Legal Protection of Design (SaM Official Gazette, no. 61/04) has abandoned the traditional French division into models and samples and opted for a modern concept, and that is design, which integrates both the model and the sample. In such a legal arrangement, there is no requirement for the filing of separate applications for the model and for the sample.

Industrial designs are of a primarily aesthetic nature, therefore a design must not be dictated only, or essentially, by technical or functional characteristics of the product.

An industrial design has to be suitable for industrial application, so that it can be manufactured as a handicraft item or industrially. Otherwise, it is an artistic work which can be protected only by means of copyright.

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?
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?