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A registered design is a legal monopoly which offers protection for the outward appearance of the whole or a part of a product.
In order to qualify for registration a design must be new which means that it must not be the same as any design which has already been made available to the public. A design must also have individual character which means that the overall impression it produces on an informed user must be different to the overall impression produced by any existing known design.
A registered design must be obtained for each country in which protection is required. This can be achieved by:
- filing separate national patent applications in each country; or
- filing a Community Design application, which covers all member states of the European Union.
Design right is an automatic right which protects original, non-commonplace designs of the shape or configuration of products against copying.
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