Designs: Basics
„Design is music for the eyes“ – Design is realized in the presentation of products, triggers emotions and sets new impulses.
A successful product design directly appeals to the consumers’ senses of and promotes entrepreneurial success. The protection of designs is an effective means to legally protect innovations in form, color scheme and other appearance features of a product. A design must be new and have individual character in order to be protectable. The maximum term of protection for registered designs in Germany and the EU is 25 years. At EU level, unregistered designs also enjoy protection against identical imitation for 3 years from the time they are made publicly available.