Product design - how to protect

The main goal of the manufacturer is to create packaging or product design that will provide legal protection for it as an object of intellectual property and distinguish it from the products of its competitors.

Before purchasing it, the buyer pays attention to the packaging or design of the product - to the shape, color design, original elements, everything that creates a unique image of the product being offered and allows the consumer to distinguish it from others offered by different manufacturers.  

          Typically, a unique design is eligible for protection as an industrial design and/or trademark. In some cases, a product design can be protected as a utility model, but it must also have a certain technical novelty.

          Thus, the appearance of a product, as an object of intellectual property, may be subject to legal protection:

- as a trademark, which is a verbal, pictorial, combined or three-dimensional designation that serves to individualize goods and services. The packaging of goods as a three-dimensional trademark representing the shape of the goods can be registered only if it has distinctiveness, which allows one manufacturer to be distinguished from others;

- as an industrial design - the resulting patent provides legal protection specifically for the appearance of the product;

- as a utility model if the product has technical novelty.

          The copyright holder of a patent for an industrial design and/or a certificate of registration for a trademark can be an individual (for example, having the status of an individual entrepreneur) and a legal entity.

          The validity period of the exclusive right to a trademark for the copyright holder is initially valid for 10 years with renewal an unlimited number of times (that is, indefinitely).

          The validity of a patent for an industrial design extends to 25 years with a fourfold renewal (initially the patent is limited to 5 years).

          A violation of the exclusive right to a trademark is an attempt to use a designation that is identical to a registered trademark or confusingly similar to it.

          A violation of the exclusive right to an industrial design is the fact that a third party uses all the essential features of an industrial design or a set of features in a product, which may mislead the consumer.

          Both methods of legal protection, which have their own advantages and disadvantages, are presented in the table.

Any questions?