How Spain protects the appearance of industrial products

Automatic summary, not yet reviewed

1. The law creates the legal regime for protecting industrial design: the appearance of a product or part of it, derived from its lines, contours, colors, shape, texture or materials. Protection is obtained by registering the design in the Register of Designs.
2. Only new designs with individual character can be registered: no identical design may have been made known, and the design must produce a different overall impression on the informed user than existing designs.
3. There is a 12-month grace period: if the author discloses the design, the possibility of registering it is not lost during the year before filing. This allows testing the design in the market before registering it.
4. The registration lasts five years from the filing date and can be renewed for successive five-year periods up to a maximum of 25 years.
5. The holder of a registered design may use it and prevent third parties from manufacturing, offering, marketing, importing, exporting or storing it without consent. Before publication, anyone notified of the application is subject to provisional protection with a right to compensation.
6. Registration is granted after a formal examination and a limited ex officio examination (that the object is a design and not contrary to public order or morality). Novelty and individual character are not checked. After publication, anyone may oppose within two months.
7. The law sets limits to the right: it does not cover private non-commercial acts, experimental acts or teaching uses, nor designs put on the market in the European Economic Area by the holder (exhaustion of the right). Shapes dictated exclusively by technical function are also not protected.
8. Anyone infringing a registered design can be sued: cessation of the infringing acts, compensation for damages (with a minimum of 1% of the infringer's turnover) and destruction of the counterfeit products, among other measures.

Who it affects

• Designers and design authors: They can register their designs and have the right to be named as authors.
• Companies that manufacture or sell products: They must respect third-party registered designs or face lawsuits and compensation claims.
• Employees and commissioned workers: Unless the contract says otherwise, the right to register the design belongs to the employer or the party who commissioned the work.
• Anyone: Any person can oppose a registration within two months of its publication.

Words worth knowing

Registro de Diseños (Register of Designs)

A single public register for all of Spain, kept by the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office, where protected designs are recorded.

Usuario informado (informed user)

The person the product is aimed at, familiar with the sector; used to judge whether a design differs from existing ones.

Agotamiento del derecho (exhaustion of rights)

Once the holder sells a product with consent in the European Economic Area, they can no longer prohibit its resale.

Oposición post-concesión (post-grant opposition)

A procedure allowing third parties to request cancellation of an already granted registration, within two months of publication.

Causahabiente (successor in title)

A person who inherits or receives the rights of the design's author.

It summarizes the law as published in the BOE. It is written by artificial intelligence and may contain mistakes: the official text is what counts. Read the official text · How we make summaries