The protection obtainable through the filing of designs can be extended, in many jurisdictions, also to parts of products and not only to the entire appearance of the products. It is therefore essential to define an appropriate filing strategy that protects not only the overall appearance of finished products, but also the appearance of their essential features. In this way, it is possible to prevent third parties from adopting innovative and highly appealing stylistic elements.
However, in the different countries around the world, the requirements for representation and registration of designs as well as the formal registration process are often different.
A careful preparation of design applications considerably facilitates the registration procedure in different countries of the world, significantly reducing the associated costs and limiting the risk of rejection. A combination of legal and procedural knowledge is therefore fundamental to meet the different validity requirements of the various jurisdictions and to obtain, at the same time, a wide and adequate level of protection in the respective countries.
The recent accession to the international design system by countries of high interest (e.g. Russia, USA, Japan, Korea, Canada in addition to European Union, Switzerland, Norway and the United Kingdom) makes the use of the international design system particularly attractive.
