PATENTSERVIS Alicante: Industrial design of EU


What obtains owner of a European industrial design?

  1. Uniform protection:
    The Community Industrial design is governed by a uniform system, which system allows to owner to obtain protection of an industrial design on the territory of the whole European Union by filing only one application. Industrial design protects external appearance of a product or of a part of the product, which appearance consists particularly in the shape, material structure, decoration, contours and lines.


  2. Uniform and effective procedure:
    An application to register a Community Industrial Design is filed with the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM). The priority right is also applicable here. Apart from this a 12-months period is also set, during which period it is possible to sell the product on the market before filing the application without destroying its novelty.


  3. Kinds of protection
    A design can be protected as:
    Unregistered design
    Protection of such design commences on the day the design was published in the Community for the first time. This protection lasts three years and cannot be prolonged. Origin of such protection does not require any formal legal act. The design is protected against intentional imitation or copying.
    Registered design
    The design is registered in a register kept by OHIM. The registered design is protected not only against the intentional imitation but also against non-intentional development of a similar product by a third party.


  4. Scope of protection:
    On the basis of a registration the design is protected as a Community registered design for the 5-years period of time, which period of time can be prolonged at the end of each 5-years period of time up to the total protection length 25 years from the application filing date..


  5. Possibility to use the Community design:
    The registered Community design allows to the owner to prohibit non-allowed production and distribution of product identical with the registered design in the member countries of the EU and last but not least to prevent import of such products into the Union at the places of entry (customs offices).