Three years - art. 11 Community designs Regulation
Comments by: Paweł Wrześniewski
COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) No 6/2002 of 12 December 2001 on Community designs
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Art. 11
COMMENCEMENT AND TERM OF PROTECTION OF THE UNREGISTERED COMMUNITY DESIGN
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1. A design which meets the requirements under Section 1 shall be protected by an unregistered Community design for a period of three years as from the date on which the design was first made available to the public within the Community.
2. For the purpose of paragraph 1, a design shall be deemed to have been made available to the public within the Community if it has been published, exhibited, used in trade or otherwise disclosed in such a way that, in the normal course of business, these events could reasonably have become known to the circles specialised in the sector concerned, operating within the Community. The design shall not, however, be deemed to have been made available to the public for the sole reason that it has been disclosed to a third person under explicit or implicit conditions of confidentiality.
'Meeting the requirements under Section 1' mostly means a design shall be protected by a Community design to the extent that it is new and has individual character.
Registration is better as far as term of protection is concerned. A design shall be protected by a registered Community design for a period of five years as from the date of the filing of the application. After then the protection can be renewed.
Exception of confidentiality ('it has been disclosed to a third person under explicit or implicit conditions of confidentiality') is yet another reason to sign non disclosure agreements. NDA is such a 'condition of confidentiality'.
[last update: 22nd of May 2020]