INTERNATIONAL DESIGN

Registration protects the design within the territories of the States designated in the application. Applications have to be filed at the WIPO.

It is not necessary to have your design registered in your own country before filing an application for its international design registration. Applications, either in French or English language, have to be forwarded directly to the WIPO in Geneva (or to the Italian Patent and Trademark Office in Rome) by the applicant or by his mandatary.

 

Requirements for international designs to be registrable:

 

  • Novelty.
  • Individual character.
  • Shall not be contrary to public order and morality.
  • Shall meet the requirements established by national laws of the States designated in the application.

 

It is important to know that:

 

  • Novelty must be absolute: divulgation by third parties of the design before the filing date of the application or before the priority date could make the design void.
  • The divulgation of the design by the author does not jeopardize its possibility to be recordable if the application for registration is filed within the 12 months following the date of such a divulgation.
  • The registrability of a design is not prejudiced by disclosures that have not been reasonably available to specialised and interested circles within the Italian territory.
  • It is possible to file a multiple design, that is a group of models and designs falling within the same product class of the International Classification of Locarno for Industrial Designs.
  • Any third party may file a reasoned request for annulment of the design at the Office.
  • Upon filing the application, the applicant may request that the application be published and therefore made accessible to third parties, in a subsequent period which cannot exceed 12 months from the filing or priority date.
  • The application is published in the International Design Bulletin.
  • The designation of the European Union is possible in an international design application.
  • In some States, the National law provides for a novelty examination.

 

The applicant of an International design or model:

 

  • Any natural or legal person who is a citizen or resident of a member state of the Hague Agreement on International Designs.
  •  Any natural or legal person having an industrial or commercial enterprise in a member state of the Hague Agreement on International Designs.

 

Priority:

 

  • It is possible to claim the priority of a first design application filed in a member state of the Paris Convention within 6 months from that first application’s date.

 

Duration and renewal of an International design:

 

  • The duration depends on the national law of the States designated at the time of the registration application.