If patent and trademark are well-known industrial property titles for the respective protection of technical inventions and distinctive signs, design which protects aesthetic characteristics is sometimes forgotten among industrial property titles.
However, this title is a useful and efficient protection because it allows to protect the shape, the appearance, the ornamentation (lines, contours, shape, colors, texture…) of a product, as soon as it is visible and what often constitutes the primary appeal of a product, regardless of the technology it may contain and which is often hidden.
There are two conditions for the protection of a design:
- Being new (which means that it was not disclosed / communicated to the public with a tolerance of 12 months for its creator)
- Presenting a character of its own (which means it must elicit from the benchmark observer an overall visual impression different from the one rendered by a previously accessible creation).
When your creation is protected by a design, copying its characteristics is an act of infringement. This title makes it possible to found numerous actions, procedural acts and to request the intervention of customs to fight against counterfeiting. It can also be licensed or transferred.
Like other industrial property titles, the design is a territorial protection. It is possible to apply for a protection in France or in other countries of the world depending on the geographical scope of your operations.
The HAGUE system thus allows, through a centralized procedure with WIPO (World Intellectual Property Office), the protection of your designs in the countries of your choice among 92 territories of the world including the European Union, Japan, the United States or the Republic of Korea. Then, each designated country confers protection according to its national legislation.
