The Protection of Unregistered Designs in EU Law

It is signifi cant that two forms of protection exist because some sectors of industry produce a large number of designs for products which are on the market for a very short time. Protection without registration formalities and fees is an advantage. However, there are sectors of industry which value the advantages of registration. These sectors value the possibility of longer term protection more than the shorter term protection provided by an unregistered Community design. One of the important benefi ts is that unregistered Community design protection does not require any documents, but the owners have to prove the exclusive right belongs to them. Another signifi cant advantage is that an unregistered Community design can be changed to a registered design during the twelvemonth grace period from the disclosure.