A Community design is a unitary industrial design right that covers the European Community. It has both unregistered and registered forms. The unregistered Community design came into effect on 6 March 2002 and the registered Community design was available from 1 April 2003.

Contents 1 Legal basis 2 Definitions 3 Scope of protection 4 Term 5 Effects 6 References

[edit] Legal basis

European Council Regulation 6/2002^[1] as implemented by Commission Regulation 2245/2002,^[2] created both unregistered and registered European Community designs. The Community design is a unitary right that has equal effect across the European Community.^[3] The unregistered form of the right has existed since 6 March 2002 while the registered form came into effect on 1 April 2003.^[4]

[edit] Definitions

A design is defined as "the appearance of the whole or a part of a product resulting from the features of, in particular, the lines, contours, colours, shape, texture and/or materials of the product itself and/or its ornamentation".

Designs may be protected if:

• they are novel, that is if no identical design has been made available to the public;
• they have individual character, that is the "informed user" would find it different from other designs which are available to the public. Where a design forms part of a more complex product, the novelty and individual character of the design are judged on the part of the design which is visible during normal use.

[edit] Scope of protection

The scope of protection conferred by a Community design includes any design which does not produce a different overall impression on an informed user, taking the degree of freedom of the designer into consideration.^[5] A Community design further confers on its holder the exclusive right to use it and to prevent any third party not having his consent from using it.^[6] For an unregistered Community design, however, the contested use must have resulted from copying the protected design.^[7]

[edit] Term

An unregistered Community design lasts for a period of three years from the date on which the design was first made available to the public within the Community.^[8] A registered Community design lasts for up to 25 years from the date on which an application for registration was filed, subject to the payment of maintenance fees.^[9] The registration process is administered by OHIM in Alicante.^[10]

[edit] Effects

The unregistered Community design provides useful, short-term protection for items of short market duration. The registered Community design provides substantial cost savings compared to obtaining national registrations in individual European countries.^[11] The Community design also permits those having business in a number of European countries to protect their designs in all of those countries more simply.^[12]

[edit] References

	Industrial design rights in the European Union
Community design	Regulation (EC) No 6/2002 (Primary law) • Regulation (EC) No 2245/2002 (Rules) • Regulation (EC) No 2246/2002 (Fees)
Enforcement	Directive 2004/48/EC (Civil enforcement) • Regulation (EC) No 1383/2003 (Customs enforcement)
Treaties	Paris Convention • Hague Agreement • TRIPS
National laws	Directive 98/71/EC Austria • Belgium • Cyprus • Czech Republic • Denmark • Estonia • Finland • France • Germany • Greece • Hungary • Ireland • Italy • Latvia • Lithuania • Luxembourg • Malta • Netherlands • Poland • Portugal • Slovakia • Slovenia • Spain • Sweden • United Kingdom
EEA Countries	Iceland • Liechtenstein • Norway