Design Prosecution

Have you created a Design or product logo and want to make sure it is protected? Perhaps you have created a new product that is unique in its design, something which will form an integral part of how customers will recognise it as your product?

Designs form an important part of a successful international branding strategy and, like a patent, trademark or any other IP right, designs should be filed with the relevant IP office and registered to discourage others from copying or using them without permission.

Registered designs are also one of the most efficient means of combatting counterfeits. They can complement existing protection against fakes or copycat products by providing customs agents and border control with a visual representation of what your genuine product should look like. Many custom authorities refuse to accept patents in their scope of work so design protections offer an effective alternative, making it significantly easier for them to identify and seize counterfeit versions.

Why should you register or patent a design?

Design Registration, also referred to as Design Patent in the US and some other jurisdictions, allows you to claim, and more importantly, demonstrate ownership of your particular design. We are experts at helping our clients to protect the individual characteristics or appearance of their designs or of a new product. Whether your design is ornamental, a key brand identifier, purely cosmetic or demonstrates an integral part of your product’s function, successfully filing a design registration, or design patent, will place it on record as your intellectual property, helping to prevent infringements and making it far easier to secure and enforce your design rights when necessary.

Design Registration and Filing Requirements

Your designs must be novel and have an individual character to qualify for protection. Zacco can assist you in successfully navigating legislative requirements, advising on which countries might be suitable to pursue and their individual rules around registration. We can identify new markets, and opportunities for commercialisation, and assess where a national design registration might be more useful than a European filing or even using an international filing system, such as the Hague Agreement.

Zacco’s design attorneys work with design prosecution directly in many markets but our international network of trusted local agents ensures that we can protect your designs across the globe. We can help with everything necessary to support and protect the success of your design, and guide you through each stage including:

Design IP Strategy
Commercialisation Viability
Pre-Filing Clearance or Research
Filing and Registration
Documentation
Design Acquisition
Licensing
Design Enforcement
Combatting Design Infringement

We can also help you to provide Customs Agents with a registered design to assist them with identifying and removing counterfeit or similarly misleading versions of your protected product and registered patents or trademarks.

For more information, or to learn more about what the successful safeguarding of your design rights could mean for the development of your brand, reach out to one of the following people.

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