Our lawyers have proven experience in the field of industrial design law. They can assist you in protecting, enhancing and defending the design of your creations by filing industrial design rights and initiating, where necessary, proceedings for infringement of industrial design and/or copyright.
Today there are about 30 000 to 40 000 industrial design professionals, representing a turnover of around 5 billion euros.
Creating a product design represents significant investments for a company, which need to be made profitable and protected.
Filing a design right serves as an effective legal instrument for a company to protect the design of its products, enabling it to obtain a monopoly on the use of the design right to its creations.
Unlike copyright, filing a design right ensures the possession of an industrial property document attesting to one’s rights. An industrial design is thus protected in France (French design) and in the European Union (via the filing of a Community design right) if it meets the requirements of novelty and distinct (or individual) character.
Under the theory of artistic unity, “product design” may also be protected by copyright, if it can be shown to be original. It should be noted, however, that the latest decisions in case-law demonstrate that cumulative protection by copyright and industrial design law is no longer automatic.
Protection of your product design
Our lawyers can assist you in protecting the design of your products.
In this context, we can do the following:
- Carry out preliminary searches in design databases concerning the design of your creations, in order to establish that there are no previously registered designs that could hinder the validity of the industrial design of your products; and
- File industrial design rights in the countries in which you intend to market your products (French industrial designs are registered with the National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI), European designs in the European Union with the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), and international designs through the Hague system, etc.).
Drawing up and negotiating contracts related to the use of a product design
Our lawyers have proven experience in drawing up all contracts related to the use of the design of your products.
In particular, we can assist you in:
- Drafting order contracts when the design of products is entrusted to a design/designer agency; and
- Drawing up assignment agreements and/or industrial design right licencing agreements.
Pre-litigation and litigations for industrial design infringement
Our lawyers also have extensive experience in litigations for copyright or industrial design infringement before French courts and European Intellectual Property Offices.
In this context, we can do the following:
- Make recommendations on the potential risks of infringing the rights of third parties during the launch of a product onto the market, in the light of the most recent French and European case-law;
- Prepare, file and renew customs declarations for the seizure of counterfeit goods both in France and in the European Union;
- Initiate invalidity proceedings against registered or unregistered French or Community designs; and
- Initiate proceedings for infringement of copyright and/or industrial design before the specialised French courts.
Also, we work actively to defend our clients in infringement proceedings brought against them due to the use of their creations.
Our other expertises