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Protection of intellectual property
Design models
Design models protect innovative and characteristic shapes and colors of two-dimensional designs and three-dimensional models in industrial and commercial fields. The object of a design model is therefore the concrete portrayal of an aesthetic result. Sales promotion is enhanced if a product is given a suitable design.
Design models can be registered for all industrial, craft and artisanal products, for example car parts, kitchens, washing machines and office machines, furniture, light, wallpaper designs, carpets, curtains, computer housing, printers, cutlery, jewelry, gifts, garden gnomes, games, articles for heating and sanitary facilities as well as specially designed biscuits or a particular shape of a chocolate product.
Protection of a design model is achieved in Germany by filing a design model application with the German Patent and Trademark Office or by lodging an application with the Office for the Harmonization of the Internal Market (OHIM) somewhere in Europe. The application should contain a photographic or otherwise graphic representation of the item to be protected.
Protection of a German design model is in the first instance for 5 years. On payment of a renewal fee this period can be extended to up to 20 years from the day of filing the application. Protection of a European design model is for a maximum of 25 years.
Design models protect their owners inasmuch as third parties may not imitate or copy the protected items. Third parties are forbidden to reproduce or to distribute reproductions without the permission of the owner of the design model in question.
The owner of a design model has the right to injunctive relief, compensation, removal and destruction of the counterfeit product as well as confiscation of all reproductions of his design model by the customs authorities. Infringements against the law on design models can even be the subject of prosecution procedures.
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