"Must Fit" Invalidates Community Design

According to Alicante News Online, a Community design has been declared invalid for the first time on the grounds that its form and dimensions were necessary in order to make it fit with another product. The contested Community design 000232996-0001 had been registered for the product “fluid distribution equipment” including 4 views, with the first one as follows:



The Invalidity Division reportedly concluded that “the RCD subsists in features of appearance of a fluid distribution equipment which must necessarily be reproduced in the exact form and dimensions in order to permit the fluid distribution equipment in which the RCD is incorporated to be mechanically connected to the head of a hotmelt application system so that either product may perform its function. Therefore, the RCD is to be declared invalid according to Article 25(1)(b) CDR in conjunction with Article 8(2) CDR.”