Designs

Designs play an important role in the final purchasing decision. Customers are oriented, though often unconsciously, towards distinctive features of similar products.

You can convince the customers to chose your product by using attractive shapes and colour schemes and ensure the recognition of your product.

The term Design refers to the features and other elements that give a products its unique appearance. Accordingly, design protection covers the shapes and colours of products that have an industrial and commercial use.

The owner of a registered design is entitled to prohibit a third party from using its design to distribute or offer products. Protection of a design can last for 25 years from the filing date to the German Patent and Trade Mark Office in Munich and it can be extended in the European Union or Worldwide.

A design may consist of three-dimensional or of two-dimensional features and it can only be registered and protected if it meets some specific requirements. The design must be new, it must have individual character and must not be composed by features dictated solely by its function. Most important, according to the Community Design Rules, when observed by an informed user, a design must create a different overall impression from any design that had been previously disclosed to the public.

Given the benefits of design protection and the relatively ease and low cost of obtaining registered protection, design protection should be considered an an integral component of a business' intellectual portfolio, keeping in mind that a successful design is an important asset for every company on the market.

We'll be glad to give detailed advice and help you protect your design right against third party infringements.