Industrial design provides protection for visual appearance (design) of products. A design may be registered if it fulfils the condition of worldwide novelty, and if it is distinguishable from designs created by others (i.e. if the design has individual character).

Monopoly Right: Industrial design provides to its owner an exclusive right to use the registered industrial design, to grant consent (license) with its use by third parties, and to prevent others from using the same or similar industrial design. The owner of an industrial design is also entitled to request information about the origin of products infringing his industrial design, to request removal from the market and destruction of such products as well as instruments and materials used for production thereof.

National Industrial Design: A national industrial design is registered by the competent office for the relevant state and is valid only on the territory of that state. If the applicant desires to protect his design in various states, he is obliged to file an industrial design application in each one of the states. Within 6 months from the filing of the first industrial design application in the first state (priority period) the applicant may file the same application in other states with priority.

Registered Community Design (RCD): A Registered Community Design provides uniform protection of a design (as one single protective document) for the territory all the EU Member States and is registered by a centralized office, the EUIPO, on the basis of one single application.

Unregistered Community Design: A regulation of the Council of the European Union provides protection also for industrial designs which are not formally registered in any design register. Their protection arises by law upon disclosure of the design to the public (exhibition, commercial use, notification) anywhere within the EU territory, and protects the design holder only against intentional copying of his design. The maximum term of protection is limited to 3 years from the date of the first disclosure of the design. The design holder must be able to prove the date and place of the first disclosure of the design.

International Design: The international treaties of the Hague System facilitate obtaining industrial design protection in various states via the centralized office of WIPO. In one single application, the applicant is able to designate the states where he is seeking design protection. WIPO performs a formal examination of the application, and registers the international industrial design. Within the following 6-month or 1-year period (depending on the particular state), each of the national offices of the designated states performs examination according to national laws and has the right to refuse granting protection of the industrial design in that particular state. If no objections are raised by the national office, the industrial design will obtain protection equivalent to national industrial design in such state.

An industrial design is registered on the basis of an application, which must contain a set of figures representing the design, filed with the competent office (Czech IPO, EUIPO, WIPO). The office assesses whether the formal requirements have been met, and invites the applicant to remedy any deficiencies if necessary. If he complies with the invitation, the industrial design can be registered, otherwise the application is refused.

Certain industrial property offices (e.g. Czech IPO) perform examination of novelty and individual character of the design before its registration, while other industrial property offices (e.g. EUIPO) limit the examination only to formal requirements and do not assess novelty nor individual character of the claimed design. Nevertheless, worldwide novelty and individual character of the claimed design are required by law, therefore lack of any of these requirements may later result in cancellation or declaration of invalidity of the industrial design.

The term of an industrial design is determined by national laws and differs from one state to another.

The maximum term of an industrial design in the Czech Republic and in the EU is 25 years, provided that the prescribed renewal requests are duly filed and renewal fees are paid every 5 years.

Prevention of infringement: When launching products to the market, any commercial subject is obliged to ensure that the products do not infringe industrial property rights, including industrial designs, valid in the territories in which they are manufactured, imported, exported, stored or marketed. Hence, it is necessary to regularly search industrial design information databases which are available free of charge through internet, or commercially. If a product which infringes an industrial design right is launched to the market, the industrial design holder will likely request removal of the product from the market as well as destruction of the product, instrument or materials used for its production, and of payment of damages.

Information: Industrial design databases are valuable sources of information about the current design production and trends in any field.

Actions against an industrial design of a third party: If you find an industrial design, which prevents you from production or commercialization of your product, and which, according to your opinion, does not fulfil the criteria of the design registration, or which infringes your rights, you may file a cancellation or invalidity action against such industrial design to the competent office and you may achieve removal of the design from the register.