Industrial design protection

An industrial design grants its holder an exclusive right (to use it and to prohibit its use by third parties without the holder’s consent) over the appearance of the whole or part of a product resulting from the features of, in particular, the lines, contours, colours, shape, texture or materials of the product itself or its ornamentation. Designs can be two-dimensional or three-dimensional.

A design protects the aesthetic appearance of a product: the lines that define it, its outline, shape, colours, texture or materials, or its ornamentation.

An industrial design application can include up to 50 different designs for the same product, as long as they are included in the same Locarno classification (except for two-dimensional features).

For each design it is possible to provide up to seven different views: a view of the product together with its main view, rear view, upper plan view, lower plan view, left side view and right side view.

Protected products must comply with a design classification known as the Locarno Classification, which sets out 32 different product classes. Designs can only be protected in a single class corresponding to the developed product.

Requirements

The two design requirements that must be met to register a Design in Spain are:

• Make it new. A Design is considered to be new if no other identical Design has been made public prior to the filing date of the registration request. Designs whose characteristics differ only in irrelevant details shall be considered identical.
• Having singular character. It is considered to have singular character when the impression it produces on an informed user differs from the general impression produced by another Design(s), which has been made accessible to the public prior to the filing date of the registration application or, if priority is claimed, prior to the priority date.

Exclusions

They are excluded from the registration as Industrial Designs, among others:

• Those that respond only to a technical function.
• Official symbols or emblems (such as the National Flag)
• Those opposed to public order.

Cost

The cost of an industrial design depends on the number of designs included in the application: the more designs are requested, the more expensive it is.

In Spain, the official design application fee is around EUR 80. You can check the fees, which are reviewed every year, on the Spanish Patents and Trade Marks Office (SPTO) website.

Registration

At least one image of the design that shows it clearly must be provided for registration.

The application can be submitted:

• In person at the Spanish Patents and Trade Mark Office , at the regional industrial property information centres or at post offices;
• On the website , with a 15 % discount.

Before submitting the industrial design application, you should search for possible earlier registrations in the free databases , to find out whether other designs that are the same or very similar already exist.

The protection bestowed by the industrial designs lasts for 5 years from the date the application for registration was submitted and may be renewed for one or more successive 5-year periods up to a maximum of 25 years from that date.

Once the industrial design has been awarded it must be renewed every 5 years, with payment of the corresponding fee.

The validity of a Spanish design is limited to the national territory.

Protection can be extended internationally in the 6 months following the application submission date, in two ways.

• EU design . Also called European Union Designs, being protection in the 27 Member States of the European Union.
• International design . This provides protection in up to 79 Member States of the Hague Agreement.

The result of the design can be regarded as an intellectual work, so that the rights inherent in the design can be combined with those generated by its status as an intellectual work.

Lastly, there is an unregistered design, whereby it is possible to protect a design for 3 years once it has been made accessible to the public, without the need for registration. However, this is a lower level of protection, as it only protects the holder against identical copies of their design.