DESIGN

WORLD IPC PATENT FIRM

Requirements for Filing a Design Application

Applicants must include: personal details (name, address and nationality) of the applicant and the creator of the design, one set of drawings or photographs comprising a perspective view and six directional views, the title of the article to be protected and a Power of Attorney signed by the applicant (where a patent attorney is appointed).

Criteria for Registration

An application should have novelty, creativity and industrial applicability, and also comply with the first-to-file rule.

Unexamined Design Registration System

Goods such as clothing, bedding, copy papers, wrapping papers, packing containers, textile fabrics, knitted fabrics and synthetic resins that may be susceptible to passing fads and thus have short life cycles, may be granted registration without substantial examination proceedings. Such article designs may therefore be registered if they only meet formality requirements (unexamined registration).

Registration Proceedings

It generally takes 6 to 9 months for a design applicant to receive an official communication. It only takes 2 to 3 months, however, in the case of an unexamined registration.

Once an unexamined design application is reviewed and gets published, any third party may file an opposition within 3 months of the publication date.

The term of a design right is for 15 years from the date of registration.