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Designs
What is a design?
A design is all about the look. It protects the visual appearance of a product rather than how it is built or operates. It can refer to an overall product or an element of that product.
Why is design protection important?
How something looks greatly influences what consumers think of a product so it’s a valuable asset that should be protected.
Why should I register a design?
Registering a design gives legal rights. It means other businesses cannot make or sell products with the same design applied to them. Protection can last for up to 25 years. Creating new designs can also lead to unregistered design rights. However, these rights are more difficult to enforce and have a much shorter duration than registered design rights.
What designs can be registered?
A design must be novel. It must also have ‘individual character’, which means that the impression produced by the design on the viewer must be sufficiently different from that created by previous publicly available designs. A design can relate to an almost unending list of products – not just products commonly thought of. For example, new typefaces, computer icons and industrial machine components are all registrable.
How do I register a design?
We register a design by filing an application with a governmental intellectual property office, for example an application to register a Community Design at the Community Design Office which covers the whole of the European Union with a single filing. The application will require drawings, photographs or specimens of the design. If you’re questioning ‘how do I register my design?’, speak to a member of our designs team.
How can a design right be enforced?
This can vary from country to country but generally design rights are enforced through the courts. The courts are usually empowered to grant an injunction to stop infringing acts as well as awarding damages if applicable.