Community design
A Community design is a unitary industrial design right that covers the European Union. It has both unregistered and registered forms. The unregistered Community design came into effect on 6 March 2002 and the registered Community design was available from 1 April 2003.
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Legal basis [edit]
Council Regulation (EC) No 6/2002,[1] as implemented by Commission Regulation (EC) No 2245/2002,[2] created both unregistered and registered European Community designs. The Community design is a unitary right that has equal effect across the European Union.[3] The unregistered form of the right has existed since 6 March 2002 while the registered form came into effect on 1 April 2003.[4]
Definitions [edit]
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 identical design has been made available to the public;
- they have individual character, that is the "informed user" would find it 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.
Scope of protection [edit]
The scope of protection conferred by a Community design includes any design which does not produce a different overall impression on an informed user, taking the degree of freedom of the designer into consideration.[5] A Community design further confers on its holder the exclusive right to use it and to prevent any third party not having his consent from using it.[6] For an unregistered Community design, however, the contested use must have resulted from copying the protected design.[7]
Term [edit]
An unregistered Community design lasts for a period of three years from the date on which the design was first made available to the public within the Community.[8] A registered Community design (RCD[9]) lasts for up to 25 years from the date on which an application for registration was filed, subject to the payment of maintenance fees.[10] The registration process is administered by OHIM in Alicante.[11]
Effects [edit]
The unregistered Community design provides useful, short-term protection for items of short market duration. The registered Community design provides substantial cost savings compared to obtaining national registrations in individual European countries.[12] The Community design also permits those having business in a number of European countries to protect their designs in all of those countries more simply.[13]
References [edit]
- ^ European Council Regulation (EC) No. 6/2002 of 12 December 2001 on Community designs (consolidated version)
- ^ Commission Regulation (EC) No 2245/2002 of 21 October 2002 implementing Council Regulation (EC) No 6/2002 on Community designs
- ^ Council Regulation 6/2002, Article 1(3)
- ^ OHIM website, What is a Community Design?
- ^ Council Regulation 6/2002, Article 10
- ^ Council Regulation 6/2002, Article 19(1)
- ^ Council Regulation 6/2002, Article 19(2)
- ^ Council Regulation 6/2002, Article 11
- ^ EU Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market: What is a Community design?
- ^ Council Regulation 6/2002, Articles 12 and 13
- ^ OHIM website, Designs
- ^ ITMA Briefing Paper, The Community Design
- ^ Boult Wade Tennant, Design Protection in the European Community, June 2005 Bulletin
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