Registered Designs

Protecting the Design of a Product – Keeps Copying within Limits

A customer's decision to buy any product is decisively influenced by visual impression, not only in the field of fashion
clothing. Even though there is no accounting for good taste, a buyer is ready to pay a higher price for designer furniture,
stylish sports cars, and beautifully designed lighting fixtures than for nondescript products. Attractive physical and/or
multi-color designs are often the best sellers because the purchaser cannot reliably recognize the engineering
features inside the product.

Substantial investments may be wasted if no attention is paid to the application for a registered design. The German
Patent and Trademark Office registers such a property right for a period of up to 25 years, without any examination
for novelty or other unique features, the so-called "individual character" by which the innovative design must be
clearly distinguished from existing designs. Such an examination is made - often with the additional consultation
of experts - only when legal action is taken against design infringers before the ordinary courts.

As the shape and appearance of products is often subject to change, the number of design applications at the
German Patent and Trademark Office is comparatively high. In 2008, roughly 49'000 applications were filed.
This shows that not only large-scale industry, but also a great number of small craftsmen, have joined the trend
toward the protection of product design.

The registration protection may be extended to other countries as well for example by an international design
application covering a group of countries under the auspices of WIPO. A design can also be registered as a
European Community design. In 2008 more then 20'000 Community Design Applications have been filed.

It is advisable to obtain a search of protected designs as early as the time of design development, not only to secure
a sufficiently unique design for the applicant's own new product but also in order to avoid interference with a third
party's design rights. Patent attorneys will assist you in such "preliminary searches."

A variation of design protection is the so-called "topography property" which secures protection of novel three-dimensional
structures of conductor and component arrays on semiconductor micro chips for a period of up to 10 years. In this case,
the application must be filed with the German Patent and Trademark Office within two years from the first commercial
use of the design.

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