Designs Registrations

A registered design is initially valid for five years from the date of filing and can be renewed in blocks of five years up to a maximum of 25 years. The owner of a registered design has the right to prevent its non-authorized reproduction or imitation by any third.

One of the main characteristics of designs is their novelty. The act of making available to the public is called “disclosure”. Disclosing a design and being able to prove it are key to design protection. If you have disclosed your design and then decide that you want to apply for a design registration – either because you want full protection or for intellectual property strategy reasons – you can still do so within one year of disclosure. This is known as the “grace period”. If you register your design after that, it will be vulnerable to attacks. This special characteristic, enables the owner to start shaping its design protection strategy.

Another main feature of designs is the individual character. A design shall be considered to have this character if the overall impression produced on the user differs from the overall impression produced on such a user by any design which has been made available to the public.

Abril Abogados provides prosecution design services worldwide, drafting the necessary draws and taking the corresponding photographs of the products that may be needed for the application. The registration costs will depend on the geographic scope of protection as well as on the number of variations included in each design. Designs are registered within surprising short deadlines, even within three days.