Doing business successfully starts with registration

“Of course as a furniture manufacturer we register new furniture or lighting designs. After all we want to protect our original designs. We also work together on a regular basis with furniture designers who often have their own small businesses. Sure, they are very busy but that is no excuse to forget to register, and therefore protect, their beautiful designs.”

Is my design new?

In the case of designs, more so than in the case of trademarks, searching the register to see whether a design has already been registered is not sufficient. After all, a design is only valid if it is new and has an individual character. What is truly relevant, therefore, is not whether a design has been previously registered but whether it exists within Europe (EC and EEA). More information on the newness and the individual character of designs is available here.

As a consequence, researching the specialist literature, magazines or the Internet is, in principle, more important than searching the Designs Register. You can carry out that research yourself (you probably know your own sector best) or you can subcontract the work to an expert.

The Benelux Designs Register is not yet available online. The BOIP can search the register on your behalf (for a fee). For example, certain search criteria can be used to ascertain whether an identical registration and publication of a certain design already exists. This is referred to as an ‘identical search’. We can also check to see which design(s) are registered to the name of a certain holder. Please contact us if you would like to find out more on this matter.