Design
Industrial Designs

An industrial design protects the appearance of a product or its part – how it looks, not how it works. You can register features such as shape, colors, texture, material, ornamentation, or the arrangement of lines. This covers a huge range of items: furniture, packaging, clothing, jewelry, typefaces, as well as digital products such as icons, user interfaces, or animations. There is one condition: the design must be new and have so-called individual character, meaning it makes a different overall impression than designs already available on the market.

Put simply: a design protects appearance, while a patent protects a technical solution. If you create a new bottle shape, a design will protect it; if you invent a new mechanism for closing it, that is patent territory. A design is registered quickly and cheaply, with no substantive examination, and protection lasts up to 25 years. A patent requires a detailed examination of novelty and inventive step, costs more, and lasts a maximum of 20 years. The two rights often complement each other – the same product can be protected by both a design (how it looks) and a patent (how it works).

Yes, but timing matters. You have 12 months from the first public disclosure of your design (e.g. at a trade fair, in a store, or on social media) to file it for registration – the so-called grace period, an exception to the novelty requirement. Within this window, your own publication will not destroy the design's novelty. After a year, the design loses novelty and registration is no longer possible. Bear in mind, though, that early disclosure gives competitors a chance to beat you to it – so it is safer to file before you go public. Note: this grace period does not apply to patents.

A registered Community design (RCD, since 2025 known as the European Union design) gives you exclusivity across the entire Union – all 27 member states – based on a single application. You can prohibit others from manufacturing, selling, or importing products that make the same overall impression on an informed user as your design. Importantly, protection works regardless of whether a competitor copied your design deliberately or developed it independently. Protection initially lasts 5 years and can be extended up to a maximum of 25 years.

This protection arises automatically – no filing, no fees – the moment a design is first made available to the public within the European Union. It lasts only 3 years and, unlike a registered design, protects solely against deliberate copying. If a competitor creates a similar design independently, they do not infringe your right. It is a good fit for industries with short product life cycles, such as fashion. Be sure to document the date and place of first publication – the burden of proving that you hold this right rests on you.

Before launching a product, it is worth running a clearance search – checking design databases such as EUIPO's free DesignView tool, which gathers millions of designs from around the world. Reviewing competitors' filings and publicly available catalogs also helps. When assessing similarity, the question is whether the two designs make the same overall impression on an "informed user" in the given field. You also need to account for design freedom – the more technical constraints a product involves, the smaller the differences that suffice to tell the designs apart. This assessment is best entrusted to a patent attorney, as it is often far from obvious.

Only partly. A design protects the look of a product – its shape, ornamentation, or graphics – and can cover a logo treated as a decorative element. It does not, however, protect a name or brand as an indication of commercial origin; that is what a trademark is for. The difference is practical: a design lasts a maximum of 25 years, while a trademark can be renewed indefinitely for as long as the brand is in use. That is why a logo is usually filed as a trademark, while a design secures the distinctive look of the product itself or its packaging. Combining both rights gives you the strongest protection.

A registered EU design is initially protected for 5 years from the filing date. Protection can be renewed for successive five-year periods, up to four times – 25 years in total. An unregistered Community design is shorter-lived: 3 years from first disclosure, and it cannot be renewed.

The official fee for filing a single EU design is currently EUR 350, covering both registration and publication. One application can include up to 50 designs – each additional design costs EUR 125, making it very cost-effective to register an entire portfolio. The procedure is fast: the EUIPO examines only formal requirements and does not check novelty or similarity to other designs. Registration usually takes a few working days. On top of that, budget for the patent attorney's fee for preparing the application and choosing the right illustrations.

The first step is usually a written cease-and-desist letter – a demand to stop producing and selling the copies, often effective without going to court. If that does not work, the case goes to court, which can order the infringement to stop, have the goods recalled and destroyed, and award damages. Claims are available for both registered and unregistered designs – with the latter, however, you must prove that copying actually took place. Secure evidence right away: photos, dates, offers, and samples of the disputed product.