(Publ. 22 NOV 2016) News from our Alicante office:

In order to harmonize design protection and technical functionality providing the same scope of protection on an international level, a new resolution has been elaborated. The resolution was adopted at the AIPPI Congress in Milan.

The benefits for design rights proprietors are to have a wide and clear protection all over in the world. The background is that today design rights have a different juridical nature depending on the country.

The major change is that in the assessment of the scope of protection of a registered design, no visual portion of the appearance of the product should be excluded from consideration, even if the appearance of any such portion is dictated solely by the functional characteristics or functional attributes of any such portion of the Product, but such portions may be given less weight in the assessment. While the functional characteristics or functional attributes of any such portion should not be protected, all visual aspects of such portion, including its size, position and spatial relationship relative to the appearance of the product, should be taken into account when assessing the scope of protection of the registered design.

The resolution shall also be applicable in the EU where a recent review of the EU Design Regulation is currently taking place by the European Commission and this new reform will come into force during the year 2017.

AIPPI is the oldest international organization of intellectual property integrating all the countries in the world composed by its national groups that recommend to define an international concept of design, which is becoming nowadays the second IP right in importance only behind the patent rights.

The summary of the resolution is written by the co-Chair Ruth Almaraz Palmero (Groth & Co in Alicante) of the AIPPI Design Committee.

Read more >> Reports of National and Regional Groups and Independent Members
http://aippi.org/committee/requirements-for-protection-of-designs/