An industrial design constitutes the ornamental or aesthetic aspect of an article. Is the professional service of creating products and systems that optimize function, value and appearance for the mutual benefit of user and manufacturer. An industrial design may consist of three dimensional features, such as the shape of an article, or two dimensional features, such as [...]
The owner of a registered industrial design or of a design patent has the right to prevent third parties from making, selling or importing articles bearing or embodying a design which is a copy, or substantially a copy, of the protected design, when such acts are undertaken for commercial purposes.
Industrial designs are applied to a wide variety of products of industry and handicraft items: from packages and containers to furnishing and household goods, from lighting equipment to jewelry, and from electronic devices to textiles. Industrial designs may also be relevant to graphic symbols, graphical user interfaces (GUI), and logos.
In most countries, an industrial design needs to be registered in order to be protected under industrial design law as a “registered design”. In some countries, industrial designs are protected under patent law as “design patents ”. Industrial design laws in some countries grant – without registration – time- and scope limited protection to so-called [...]
Industrial design rights are granted for a limited period. The duration of the protection of industrial designs varies from country to country, but it amounts at least to 10 years. In many countries, the total duration of protection is divided into successive renewable periods.
Industrial design rights are usually enforced in a court, generally on the initiative of the owner of the rights, as provided for by the applicable law. The remedies and penalties vary from country to country and could be civil (injunctions to desist from an infringement, payment of damages, etc.), criminal or administrative.
An industrial design right protects only the appearance or aesthetic features of a product, whereas a patent protects an invention that offers a new technical solution to a problem. In principle, an industrial design right does not protect the technical or functional features of a product. Such features could, however, potentially be protected by a [...]
In general, in order to obtain protection for industrial designs in more than one country, an application for the registration of an industrial design or for the grant of a patent for an industrial design must be filed in each country where protection is sought, in accordance with the law of that country. With BR [...]
When filling an application timing is very important, taking into account the originality requirement for industrial designs in most legislation, it is in general crucial to file an application for registration or for the grant of a patent before publicly disclosing it, to avoid destroying its originality. If the industrial design has already been disclosed [...]
Industrial designs make a product attractive and appealing to customers. 1. Design makes consumer’s choice: the appearance of a product can be a key factor in the consumer’s purchase decision. In other words, the success or failure of a product may rest, at least partially, on how it looks. Industrial designs can therefore be very [...]