When to register a brand design?
To be valid, the design features must be ‘new’ and have ‘individual character’ at the date of filing the application to register the design. A design is considered to be new if it has not already been made publicly available anywhere in the world.
However, earlier use or publication of a design which would not reasonably have been known in Europe, or any publication of the same design by the applicant in the 12 months immediately before filing the application, will be ignored when considering whether the design is new. While there is a 12-month ‘grace period’ to file, from first public disclosure by the applicant, we recommended filing an application to register a design as soon as possible (e.g. before the first sale of a product incorporating the design).
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