Do you know what might be the main reason for the consumer to choose your product over others? It’s design! The design makes pretty much any product exclusive. In this article, you will find all the necessary information about an industrial design in the EU and the procedure of its registration, and also how it differs from the patent.
Do you know what might be the main reason for the consumer to choose your product over others? It’s design! The design makes pretty much any product exclusive. In this article, you will find all the necessary information about an industrial design in EU and the procedure of its registration, and also how it differs from the patent.
Registered design rights
Design rights give the owner an exclusive right for the registered design for the period of twenty-five years. Design is an essential, comparatively simple form of protection. It allows companies or individuals to attain to protect their investments, including their research and development. The whole registration process does not require a rigorous examination procedure, but still, the design must fulfill certain requirements for novelty and its individual character. As the result, designs form an influential strategic asset for a number of businesses.
What are the actual benefits of obtaining a registered design?
Your registered design gives you the right to undertake legal actions in order to prevent others from using a product identically or similarly to that registered, without your consent. There is no need to prove to copy it. You can use your registered design to prevent other people from manufacturing a product that looks identically or similarly to yours, even if those people have never seen the product before. Moreover, you are able to indicate on the product and related papers or package the fact that a registered design has been received and also the registered design number. Such an official notification acts as a worthwhile deterrent that prevents your product from its potential copying or even demonstration.
Registered design vs patent
Basically, a registered design protects only the outer appearance of your product. It gives you, as the owner, the exclusive right to the design of your product. That is why a registered design offers its owner an affordable way of obtaining protection against copying.
On the other hand, a patent protects the way something actually works rather than its appearance. That is why the protection offered by a patent is wider than that provided by a registered design. Nevertheless, patents are way more complicated and more expensive to obtain because your invention has to meet without no exception stringent requirements of novelty and inventive steps. Anyway, a patent is not the right decision where protection is required only for the appearance or shape of a product.
In order to be 100% sure that everything will be made in the right way and your design is protected, do not hesitate to seek the patent attorney’s help! We will be glad to help you.
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