Industrial Design
The Industrial Design domain tests protection for the appearance of articles, not for how they work. Questions cluster around subject matter, the exclusion of purely functional shapes, the renewal structure and how drawings define the scope of the right.
Subject matter
Registrable subject matter is any composition of lines or colors, or any three-dimensional form, whether or not associated with lines or colors, that gives a special appearance to an industrial product or handicraft and is new or original. A shape dictated solely by the technical result it performs is excluded; that is patent territory. Design protection rewards the ornamental effect on the eye of the informed user.
Term and renewals
Registration lasts five years from the filing date and may be renewed for two further five-year periods, a maximum of fifteen years. Nothing renews automatically: the request and fee must be filed within the prescribed period, and a lapsed registration cannot be revived simply by paying later.
Applications
One application may cover several designs where they belong to the same Locarno class or form one set of articles. The drawings or photographs, not a verbal claim, define what is protected, so poor views narrow the right.
Worked example
A bottle has a neck thread pitched to fit a standard filling machine plus a diamond pattern on the shoulder. The thread is functional and cannot be claimed. The diamond pattern is ornamental and registrable. If a competitor copies the diamond pattern on a differently shaped bottle, the appearance as applied is what was registered, so infringement analysis compares the overall visual impression of the protected design, not the technical idea of the bottle.
Traps
Claiming functional features; forgetting that design rights cover appearance only; missing a renewal; expecting the same novelty search depth as for patents; confusing design novelty with trademark distinctiveness.