Industrial design

An industrial design means 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. A product means any industrial of handicraft item, including parts intended to be assembled into a complex product, packaging, get-up, graphic symbol and typographic typefaces, except computer programs. The features, which are solely dictated by its technical function, are not taken into consideration.

Are you interested in what the whole process of registering an industrial design entails, how much it costs to apply for an industrial design and then maintain its protection? What needs to be done on your end and what can we do for you?

Call us at +420 543 217 593, email us at info@kaniasedlaksmola.cz or make an appointment at our office at Mendlovo náměstí 1a in Brno.

Conditions for the Protection:

An industrial design shall be protected, if it is new and has an individual character. An industrial design shall be considered new if no identical design has been made available to the public before the date of filing of the application for registration or the date of priority. Industrial designs shall be deemed to be identical if their features differ only in immaterial details. An industrial design shall have individual character if the overall impression it produces on the informed user differs from the overall impression produced on such a user by any industrial design, which has been made available to the public before the date of filing of the application for registration or the date of priority. A disclosure which is a result of information provided or action taken by the designer or his successor in title during 12-months period preceding the date of filing of the application or the date of priority shall not be taken into consideration.

The application may contain request for the registration of several industrial designs (multiple application of industrial design) which are included in one class of the international classification of industrial designs.

Filing Date of the Application:

Establishes the priority right of the applicant. Consequences thereof:

  1. In case of filing an identical industrial design, the industrial design having an earlier priority right is registered.
  2. In case of filing abroad, if made within 6 months since the first filing, the foreign application is regarded as if having been filed at the date of the first filing.

Rights Conferred by the Registration of the Design:

After the registration of the design, a compensation for an infringement of rights resulting from the registered design is enforceable retrospectively since the filing date. In case the industrial design has not been published, the compensation for an infringement of rights is enforceable after the registration only if the industrial design has not been used bona fide.

Validity of the Design:

The registration of a design is valid for 5 years since filing the application and it can be renewed for further 5 years up to the overall protection period of 25 years since the filing date.

Form of Design

National Design

Proceedings take place at the Czech PTO, the design is valid only in the territory of the Czech Republic.

Community Design

  1. Registered Community Design (RCD) - proceedings take place at the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) in Alicante, Spain, the design is valid in the whole territory of EU,
  2. Unregistered Community Design - the protection arises simply by making the design available to the public and it lasts for 3 years within the whole territory of EU

International Design

The application is filed at the World Intellectual Property Office (WIPO) which checks the formality requirements and registers the design; then WIPO informs the Offices of the selected countries of the applications and said Offices may reject the design within a set period of time.