Industrial design rights in the European Union

Industrial design rights in the European Union are provided at both the Union level by virtue of the Community design and at the national level under individual national laws.

## Contents

* 1 Eligible designs
* 2 Community design
* 3 National laws
* 4 International treaties
* 5 Spare parts used for repair
* 6 See also
* 7 References
* 8 External links

## Eligible designs

A design is defined as "the appearance of the whole or a part of a product resulting from the features of, in particular, the lines, contours, colours, shape, texture and/or materials of the product itself and/or its ornamentation".

Designs may be protected if:

* they are novel, that is if no design identical or differing only in immaterial details has been made available to the public;
* they have individual character, that is the "informed user" would find the overall impression different from other designs which are available to the public. Where a design forms part of a more complex product, the novelty and individual character of the design are judged on the part of the design which is visible during normal use.

Designs are not protected insofar as their appearance is wholly determined by their technical function, or by the need to interconnect with other products to perform a technical function (the "must-fit" exception). However modular systems such as Lego or Meccano may be protected.

## Community design

Main page: Engineering:Community design

Registered and unregistered Community designs are available under EU Regulation 6/2002,[1] which provide a unitary right covering the European Union. Protection for a registered Community design is for up to 25 years, subject to the payment of renewal fees every five years. The unregistered Community design lasts for three years after a design is made available to the public and infringement only occurs if the protected design has been copied.

## National laws

National systems of registered designs remain in place alongside the system of Community designs: registration in a small number of countries is cheaper than Community registration, and may be more appropriate for smaller manufacturers. The Benelux countries (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg) form a single area with respect to designs, administered by the Benelux Office for Intellectual Property.

National laws are harmonised by the Directive on the legal protection of designs:[2] the criteria for eligibility and the duration of protection are the same as for registered Community designs. Many Member States also protect unregistered design rights under their national law, but these are not covered by the Directive.

## International treaties

The protection of industrial design rights is required by the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS, Arts. 25 & 26), to which the European Union is a party.[3] The Regulation on Community designs provides for the recognition of the priority date of an application for design right registration in a country which is either a member of the World Trade Organization or a party to the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property.

On 1 January 2008, the European Union became a party to the Geneva Act of the Hague Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Industrial Designs [4]. This followed the proposal of the European Commission on 22 December 2005 [5].

## Spare parts used for repair

The protection of "component parts of complex products", in particular spare parts for cars, was left to Member States' discretion in Directive 98/71/EC, given the divergence of practices and opinions. As required by that Directive, the European Commission has conducted research on the question, which found that spare parts such as wings and bumpers were 6.4–10.3% more expensive in countries where these parts were protected by industrial design rights compared with countries where no such protection existed: it has proposed that the design right protection on these parts be abolished throughout the European Union.[6]

## See also

* European Union trade mark
* World Intellectual Property Organization
* Japanese design law

## References

1. ^ Regulation (EU) No 6/2002 of 12 December 2001 on Community designs
2. ^ "Directive 98/71/EC". 13 October 1998. http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=31998L0071. "on the legal protection of designs"
3. ^ 94/800/EC: Council Decision (of 22 December 1994) concerning the conclusion on behalf of the European Community, as regards matters within its competence, of the agreements reached in the Uruguay Round multilateral negotiations (1986-1994)
4. ^ Parties to the Hague Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Industrial Designs.
5. ^ Proposal for a Council Decision approving the accession of the European Community to the Geneva Act of the Hague Agreement concerning the international registration of industrial designs, adopted in Geneva on 2 July 1999
6. ^ Commission proposal for an amendment to the Directive 98/71/EC

## External links

* Designs page of the European Commission Directorate-General for the Internal Market
* Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market
* www.handsoffmydesign.com e-Learning about European Union Design Protection
* Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights
* Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property
* Geneva Act of the Hague Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Industrial Designs
* Design Law wiki

* v
* t
* e

Design

* Outline
* Designer

Disciplines

| Communication
design|

* Advertising
* Book design
* Corporate design
* Exhibit design
* Film title design
* Graphic design
* Motion
* Postage stamp design
* Print design
* Illustration
* Information design
* Instructional design
* News design
* Photography
* Retail design
* Signage / Traffic sign design
* Typography / Type design
* Video design
* Visual merchandising

|

Environmental
design|

* Architecture
* Architectural lighting design
* Building design
* Passive solar
* Ecological design
* Environmental impact design
* Garden design
* Computer-aided
* Healthy community design
* Hotel design
* Interior architecture
* Interior design
* EID
* Keyline design
* Landscape architecture
* Sustainable
* Landscape design
* Spatial design
* Urban design

Industrial
design|

* Automotive design
* Automotive suspension design
* CMF design
* Corrugated box design
* Electric guitar design
* Furniture design
* Sustainable
* Hardware interface design
* Motorcycle design
* Packaging and labeling
* Photographic lens design
* Product design
* Production design
* Sensory design
* Service design

Interaction
design|

* Experience design
* EED
* Game design
* Level design
* Video game design
* Hardware interface design
* Icon design
* Immersive design
* Information design
* Sonic interaction design
* User experience design
* User interface design
* Web design

Other
applied arts|

* Public art design
* Ceramic / glass design
* Fashion design
* Costume design
* Jewelry design
* Floral design
* Game art design
* Property design
* Scenic design
* Sound design
* Stage/set lighting design
* Textile design

Other
design
& engineering|

* Algorithm design
* Behavioural design
* Boiler design
* Database design
* Drug design
* Electrical system design
* Experimental design
* Filter design
* Geometric design
* Job design
* Integrated circuit design
* Circuit design
* Physical design
* Power network design
* Mechanism design
* Nuclear weapon design
* Nucleic acid design
* Organization design
* Process design
* Processor design
* Protein design
* Research design
* Social design
* Software design
* Spacecraft design
* Strategic design
* Systems design

Approaches

* Activity-centered
* Adaptive web
* Affective
* Brainstorming
* By committee
* By contract
* C-K theory
* Closure
* Co-design
* Concept-oriented
* Configuration
* Contextual
* Continuous
* Cradle-to-cradle
* Creative problem-solving
* Creativity techniques
* Critical
* Design fiction
* Defensive
* Design–bid–build
* Design–build
* architect-led
* Domain-driven
* Ecodesign
* Energy neutral
* Engineering design process
* Probabilistic design
* Error-tolerant
* Fault-tolerant
* Framework-oriented
* For assembly
* For behaviour change
* For manufacturability
* For Six Sigma
* For testing
* For X
* Functional
* Generative
* Geodesign
* HCD
* High-level
* Inclusive
* Integrated
* Integrated topside
* Intelligence-based
* Iterative
* KISS principle
* Low-level
* Metadesign
* Mind mapping
* Modular
* New Wave
* Object-oriented
* Open
* Parametric
* Participatory
* Platform-based
* Policy-based
* Process-centered
* Public interest
* Rational
* Regenerative
* Reliability engineering
* Research-based
* Responsibility-driven
* RWD
* Safe-life
* Sustainable
* Systemic
* SOD
* Tableless web
* Theory of constraints
* Top-down and bottom-up
* Transformation
* Transgenerational
* TRIZ
* Universal
* Design for All
* Usage-centered
* Use-centered
* User-centered
* Empathic
* User innovation
* Value-driven
* Value sensitive
* Privacy by

* Design choice
* computing
* controls
* flow
* leadership
* management
* marker
* methods
* pattern
* research
* science
* sprint
* strategy
* theory
* thinking

* Tools
* Intellectual property
* Organizations
* Awards

| Tools|

* AAD
* Architectural model
* Blueprint
* Comprehensive layout
* CAD
* CAID
* Virtual home design software
* CAutoD
* Design quality indicator
* Electronic design automation
* Flowchart
* Mockup
* Product design specification
* Prototype
* Sketch
* Storyboard
* Technical drawing
* Web design program
* Website wireframe

|

Intellectual
property|

* Community design
* Design around
* Design patent
* Fashion design copyright
* Geschmacksmuster
* Industrial design rights
* European Union

Organizations|

* AIGA
* Chartered Society of Designers
* Design and Industries Association
* Design Council
* International Forum Design
* The Design Society
* Design Research Society

Awards|

* European Design Award
* German Design Award
* Good Design Award (Museum of Modern Art)
* Good Design Award (Chicago Athenaeum)
* Good Design Award (Japan)
* Graphex
* IF product design award
* James Dyson Award
* Prince Philip Designers Prize
* Prix Versailles

Related topics

* Aesthetics
* Agile
* Concept art
* Conceptual design
* Creative industries
* Cultural icon
* .design
* Enterprise architecture
* Futures studies
* Indie design
* Innovation Management
* Intelligent design
* Lean Startup
* New product development
* OODA Loop
* Philosophy of design
* Process simulation
* Slow design
* STEAM fields
* Unintelligent design
* Visualization
* Wicked problem

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* classic
* competition
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* elements and principles
* engineer
* firm
* history
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* language
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* load
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* review
* specification
* studio
* technology

* Commons
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* Wiktionary

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