design
The road to good design registration is often as unique as your products and we want to guide you in the right direction.
Establishing design protection for the design of your products can have a significant commercial impact on your business. This is especially true in today’s world where the design of a product can be the factor that makes one product more interesting to consumers than other competing products.
Design protection can be established for many products. Some obvious examples include furniture, jewellery and industrial equipment. However, design protection can also be applied to other products, for example a graphical user interface (GUI) of a software product or the pattern of a cloth. We recommend that you register a design if you have spent time and resources to develop the design of your product and if the design adds value to your product.
Combining design protection with patent protection may provide a very strong protection of a product, because in this way you may protect both the outer appearance of the product and the technical function of the product.
Costs associated with design registration
Compared to other IP rights, design rights can be obtained at a relatively low price. For example, you may protect the design of a product in the entire EU by means of one single design application which may typically result in a registered design right for a fraction of the price that a patent right would cost. A design registration is typically valid for 25 years, whereas patents typically have a term of 20 years.
It is also possible, in an easy way, to establish protection in countries outside of Europe via an International Design Application. For example, some of the most common countries in which Danish companies expand their business, Norway, Switzerland, Turkey and the US, can be covered by a single international application.
If you are interested in seeing examples of prices for obtaining design protection, you can calculate the approximate price of your project by yourself via our online interactive price calculator for designs. Simply send us a mail by clicking the contact button on the right, let us know that you want access to our price calculator, and we will send you a link and access codes.
Benefits of protecting your product’s visual expression with a design registration
Simply put, registering your design will strengthen your position on the market as it allows you to prevent others from using your design.
From a marketing perspective, a registered design creates value for both your company and your customers. Since you have monopoly over the design, your customers will know that each time they buy products having your design, the origin and quality of the products are guaranteed. Just like people can develop a preference for what they drink and eat, choosing only certain brands over time, they can also develop a preference for shoes, furniture, etc. In time, they will associate the quality of the design with your company, preferring your products to those from other companies.
From a legal perspective, a strong design registration will protect you not only against designs that are identical, but also against those that give the same overall impression. It will allow you to stop any infringing activities and recover financial damages from the infringer.
Providing customs authorities with a copy of your registered design can also help them recognize illegal copies, and stop the copies at the borders between countries.
Get the best protection of your design with the help of our design team
The path to a good design registration can be as unique as your product, and we would like to be the ones guiding you on that path.
With each client and product being unique, your position, products, and needs become the basis on which a design registration strategy is built. We therefore commit ourselves to delivering transparent and diligent solutions suitable for your specific case. Furthermore, due to our extensive experience with both patents and designs, we are able to analyse your product and see what combination of trade secrets, patent and design rights would best protect it.
Due to our many years of experience with filing design applications throughout the world, we can especially help those interested in the international market. With the help of the European and International Offices, as well as our strong and extensive network of foreign agents, we can assist you in establishing protection in countries all over the world. We can also help prepare the drawings of your application to ensure that the drawings fulfil national/regional requirements in order to establish optimal protection in the different countries.
Whether you want to register a design that gives you protection on the national market or on the international market, our design experts have the knowledge, skills, and resources to help you with your project.
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