Register your Design Now!
A registered design, also known as an industrial design, prevents competitors from using it, thereby causing market confusion and ultimately ensuring that your design is no longer clearly associated with your company.
As lawyers, our sole task in design law is to provide you with security for your investments in your design.
Design Registration Process
A design application must be filed with the competent office, which for an Austrian design is the Austrian Patent Office. If the office finds no obstacles to registration, the design will be registered by the office. A design is protected for five years from the date of application and can be renewed four times, each for an additional five years.
Peter HarlanderHarlander & Partner Rechtsanwälte „Die Gesamtlaufzeit eines Designrechts beträgt 25 Jahre ab dem Tag der Anmeldung – danach erlischt das Recht am Design“
Design Law Consultation
In the first step, fundamental preliminary questions are reviewed.
- Is the design registrable?
- In which class should the design be protected?
As part of the examination of the registration requirements, it is checked, for example, whether the design violates public order or is merely dictated by the technical function of a product.
Once the preliminary questions have been reviewed, the next step involves defining the scope of protection for the design. Here, clarifying in which classes (Locarno Classification) the design should be protected is particularly relevant. This step also determines which geographical areas the design protection should cover.
Peter HarlanderHarlander & Partner Rechtsanwälte „Zur Auswahl der zu schützenden Locarno-Klassen analysieren wir den aktuellen Tätigkeitsumfang Ihres Unternehmens, überlegen mit Ihnen aber auch, wohin sich das Unternehmen in Zukunft entwickeln könnte.“
Design Examination
Once these fundamental questions have been clarified, the actual research and design law analysis can begin. At this point, the main focus is on examining two key questions. On the one hand, it is checked whether the design meets the characteristic of so-called novelty, meaning no earlier, identical protected design exists. On the other hand, the design must possess individual character – meaning there must be no earlier design that could be confused with it.
Even as an expert, one faces a few tough challenges at this stage. Laypersons can only arrive at the correct result by chance at this point. Depending on its outcome, the design law analysis either leads to the approval of registration or to the creation of a risk assessment.
Design Registration
The final step is the registration of the design. This involves handling the registration procedure, i.e., preparing all documents, filing with the competent intellectual property office, and correspondence with the intellectual property office.
Register your Design Now
Do you want to register a design? Then you’ve come to the right place!
An overview of the costs and fees can be found in our Design Protection Packages with fixed prices.
