Protect your aesthetic innovations worldwide!

Copying the aesthetics of your product can have disastrous repercussions if it is combined with poor or even faulty technology that is not immediately perceptible to the consumer.

The industrial property title of “Design” makes it possible to protect the appearance of a product. Sometimes neglected by companies, even though they are aware of the protection of inventions by patents or names by trademarks, this protection is nevertheless essential since the aesthetics of your product is often decisive for the consumer and requires financial and human investments.

Acquiring a monopoly on the aesthetics of your product requires reflection in parallel with its conception, since the design title must be filed before the expiry of a period of 12 months following the disclosure of the product to the public.

The protection sought can be national (with the INPI or the national offices of the selected countries), it can be European with the Community design title protecting the 27 member countries of the European Union, it can also be international thanks to the international design which is a single and centralised application filed with the WIPO and which can now protect up to 93 countries.

WIPO recently announced that China has joined this international title, which can be designated in an application from 5 May 2022. China’s accession was expected as it was a strategic territory for intellectual property absent from the membership. Between 2014 and 2018, the Republic of Korea, the United States, Japan, Canada and the Russian Federation joined the system.

From May onwards, it will therefore be possible in a centralised application with preferential costs to protect one’s aesthetic innovation in Europe, Russia, North America, in several Asian countries, as well as with the African Intellectual Property Organisation.

The formalisation of the application and the choice of the representation of your product depend on the countries of your interest, taking into account certain national requirements.

Do not hesitate to contact us,  also assists you in protecting your aesthetic innovations!

− Eléonore Dauphant, IP Attorney and Partner at Mark & Law

Find all the countries that have joined the Hague System by clicking here.