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Old 30th March 2018, 17:15
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Just dug this up on Design Protection Interesting !!

Design protection in the EU
Directive on the legal protection of designs
To ensure better coexistence and consistency of the systems of design protection in individual EU countries, the EU adopted Directive 98/71/EC on the legal protection of designs in 1998. The objective of the Design Directive is to ensure that registered design rights give the right holder equivalent protection in all EU countries.

Community design protection
Limiting design protection to the territory of individual EU countries could have led to a division of the internal market and would have constituted an obstacle to the free movement of goods. To prevent this, a unitary design right was established by Regulation No 6/2002 on Community design in 2002.

The Regulation brought into being a one-off, inexpensive procedure for registering designs with the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO). Those registering designs are granted the exclusive rights to use the design and to prevent any third party from using it anywhere in the EU for up to 25 years. The Regulation also provided for 'Unregistered Community Designs' that under certain conditions can also benefit from protection from deliberate copying without prior registration with the EUIPO. In both cases, to be eligible for protection, designs must be new and must have an individual character. The aim of the Community design system is to ensure accessible design protection that suits the needs of all types of enterprises in the EU.
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