A strong product design is often a key competitive advantage – and it gets copied. Design protection secures the appearance of products, packaging, logos and user interfaces.
Protection options
- Registered German design (DPMA): up to 25 years, renewable every five years
- Registered EU design (EUIPO): protection in all EU Member States (formerly Community design)
- Unregistered EU design: three years from first disclosure in the EU, only against deliberate copies
Requirements
A design must be new and have individual character: its overall impression on the informed user must differ from earlier designs. Own disclosures within twelve months before filing do not harm novelty (grace period).
Infringement
The right holder can claim injunctive relief, information on origin and distribution channels, recall, destruction and damages (actual loss, reasonable licence fee or infringer’s profit). Where no design right exists, the supplementary protection against imitations under Section 4 No. 3 UWG may help, but it is less predictable.
An online retailer offers a lamp with the same overall impression as our client’s registered design. We send a warning letter, demand information on sources and sales, and calculate damages by licence analogy.
A new product shown at a fair is copied three months later. The unregistered EU design applies to deliberate copies; we also file within the grace period.
