- What is an industrial design ?
- Why should you register your industrial design ?
- Legal regulations
- Which industrial designs qualify for registration ?
- Who can file an application ?
- How to apply for an industrial design ?
- What is a multiple application ?
- How is an application examined ?
- How long are registered industrial designs valid for ?
- What are the basic administrative fees ?
- How does one acquire a protection of an industrial design abroad ?
- Where can you get more information ?
Industrial Designs
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Legal Protection
Industrial Designs
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Legal Protection
Industrial Designs
and
Legal Protection
How ...
what ...
LEGAL PROTECTION
LEGAL PROTECTION
Who ...
INDUSTRIAL DESIGNS
INDUSTRIAL DESIGNS
where ...
Which ...
What is an industrial design ?
What is an industrial design ?
Why should you register your industrial design ?
Legal regulations
Which industrial designs qualify for registration ?
Who can file an application ?
How to apply for an industrial design ?
What is a multiple application ?
How is an application examined ?
How long are registered industrial designs valid for ?
What are the basic administrative fees ?
How can industrial designs be protected abroad ?
Where can you get more information ?
Who ...
How can industrial designs be protected abroad ?
Where can you get more information ?
Industrial Property Office
industrial designs AND LEGAL PROTECTION
What is an industrial design ?
Industrial design means the appearance of the whole or a part of a product, resulting particularly from the features of the lines, contours, colours, shapes, textures and/or materials of the product itself and/or its decoration. It involves a visually perceivable complex of product features (the appearance), which has been incorporated into a product or its part in addition to other features, particularly of such categories as „the materials a product is made of“ or „how it is technically or structurally arranged in order to fullfil a certain function“ by its author, who would optimally be a professional designer. Consequently, industrial design does not involve the engineering, structural, functional, material or other nature of the product, and, if registered, its scope of protection does not cover the technical aspects of a product (even if these aspects could be recognizable from the actual product or representation thereof).
In the terminology of industrial design legal protection, the product means an industrially or hand-made object, including parts intended for assembly into a complex product, or a graphic symbol (such as a pictogram), typographic typefaces (script or lettering in the sense of a concrete set of alphanumeric characters that are usually exploited through printing) except for computer programmes. The complex product is a product consisting of several replaceable parts enabling disassembly and reassembly of the product. Graphics alone, without being applied to a carrier (a concrete three-dimensional or two-dimensional product) cannot be considered an industrial design, because it does not represent the product‘s appearance.
Why should you register your industrial design ?
To a certain extent, the public is aware of possibility of legally protecting technical solutions through a patent or utility model. Legal protection of an industrial design by registering it in the industrial design register is parallel to this, but is for solutions of another kind - design solutions. The protection acquired brings its owners advantages (with respect to competitors, for example). This advantage consists of the exclusive right to use the registered industrial design, to prevent use by a third party without approval, to provide licenses for other individuals to use the registered design or to transfer the design rights.
The term „to use the industrial design“ means in particular the manufacture or marketing of the product incorporating the registered industrial design or the one to which it is applied. By protecting an industrial design, the individual who is entitled to do so can assure and further increase the value of that design solution, which cost a great deal of time and effort to create.
Legal regulations
The protection of industrial designs, including the definition of rights and relations derived from it is regulated by the following legislation:
- Act No. 207/2000 Coll. on Protection of Industrial Designs and Amendment to Act No. 527/1990 Coll. on Inventions, Industrial Designs and Rationalization Proposals in the wording of its later amendments (hereinafter „Industrial Design Act“),
- Act No. 500/2004 Coll. on Administrative Procedure (hereinafter „Administrative Regulations“),
- Act No. 634/2004 Coll. on Administrative Fees, in the wording of its later amendments.
The goal of this booklet is to provide public with basic information on the protection of industrial designs in understandable form and language. Together with other booklets published by the Industrial Property Office (Technical Solutions and T