Searching Enhancements for Registered Community Designs in Europe

Registered Community Designs in Europe are now searchable on-line by

• Design Number
• Owner Name
• Filing date
• Locarno class-subclass (limited to one class, with one optional sub-class)
  and
• Indication of the product

In addition to these basic search input options, the advanced search screen now also offers:

• Representative name or ID
• Designer name or ID
• Priority date
• Publication date
• Country of owner
• Country of priority
• Vienna classification
• Verbal element
• Status

and, the following fields function differently under Advanced Search in order to allow for wildcards and/or logical operators:

• Owner
• Locarno class-subclass
• Indication of the product

Holders of registered designs have exclusive rights to use the design anywhere within the European Union for up to 25 years. To be eligible for protection, designs must be new and must have an individual character. In other words, it must be apparent to the public that they are different from products which existed previously. In contrast, unregistered designs are protected for only three years, and then only against deliberate copying.

The full text of the Community Design Regulation and other official information is available here. Guidelines for the proceedings relating to a declaration of invalidity of a registered Community design are available here.