Filing of design applications in France | Filing of design applications in Europe

Filing of design applications in France

A design shall be protected by a design right to the extent that it is new and has proper character. The novelty is studied at the filing date or at the priority date. A prior design shall be deemed to have been made available to the public if it has been published, used or otherwise disclosed. However, there is no disclosure when the design could not reasonably have become known in the normal course of business to the circles specialised in the sector concerned, operating within the European Community, before the date of filing of the application for registration or, if priority is claimed, the date of priority, and the design shall not be deemed to have been made available to the public for the sole reason that it has been disclosed to a third person under explicit or implicit conditions of confidentiality.

A design shall be considered to have proper character if the overall impression it produces on the informed observant differs from the overall impression produced on such a user by any design which has been made available to the public before the date of filing of the application for registration or, if priority is claimed, the date of priority. In assessing proper character, the degree of freedom of the designer in developing the design shall be taken into consideration.

As there is no examination for registering a design in France, it is only in case of a suit that the validity will be evaluated, concerning novelty and proper character.

The protection of a design is of 5 years from the date of filing. The term of protection may be renewed by periods of five years up to a total term of 25 years from the date of filing.

The certificate of registration is ussed by the French Design Office about 6 months after the filing.

Filing of design applications in Europe

The requirements for the protection by the Registered Community Design right are that it must be new at the filing date or at the priority right and the design must have an individual character.

The disclosure by the creator himself is opposable if it has occurred more than one year before the filing. However, a disclosure does not destroy the novelty nor the individual character when it concerns designs which 'could not reasonably have become known in the normal course of business to the circles specialised in the sector concerned, operating within the Community'.

The components parts of a complex product are protected only if both requirements (novelty and individual character) are fulfilled. Furthermore, they have to remain visible by the final observer. For detached parts, an isolated part is not protected if its shape is dictated by the whole product.

As for the Community mark, the filing of a Community design involves the choice of two languages : the first one is selected among the 22 official languages of the European Community and the second one among the 5 official languages of the Office for the Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM), i.e. English, French, German, Italian and Spanish.

The OHIM does not undertake any examination on the merits; there is no opposition prosecution but a cancellation proceeding is possible, without any time limit after the publication.

The design is registered for a period of 5 years which may be renewed for one or more periods of five years each, up to a total term of 25 years.