Part Two: Industrial property

The appearance of a product, or part of a product, characterised in particular by its lines, contours, colours, shape, texture or materials, may be protected as a design. These characteristics may be those of the product itself or of its ornamentation. Any industrial or handicraft object is considered a product, including parts designed to be assembled into a complex product, packaging, presentations, graphic symbols and typographical characters, but excluding computer…

Only designs that are new and have their own character may be protected.

A design shall be regarded as new if, at the date of filing of the application for registration or at the date of priority claimed, no identical design has been disclosed. Designs are considered identical when their characteristics differ only in insignificant details.

A design has a character of its own when the overall visual impression which it produces in the informed observer differs from that produced by any design disclosed before the date of filing of the application for registration or before the date of priority claimed. In assessing character of its own, account shall be taken of the freedom left to the designer in producing the design.

The design of a part of a complex product shall be regarded as new and having its own character only to the extent that: a) The part, once incorporated into the complex product, remains visible during normal use of that product by the end user, with the exception of maintenance, service or repair; b) The visible features of the part as such fulfil the conditions of novelty and own character….