Check that your design can be protected

We strongly recommend checking that your design is novel, bearing in mind that if a design is disclosed to the public by its own creator, this is considered to deprive the design of its novelty, where it dates from more than ten years earlier, as from the filing date.

IMPORTANT: This check does not form part of the Office’s legal obligations during the administrative examination of the application. If you skip this check, you run the risk of being prosecuted for infringing a design registered earlier by someone else, who may seek not only to have the registration of your design annulled, but may also claim damages. 

As a general rule, an industrial design is considered to be novel if it has not previously been disclosed to the public, and original if it differs significantly from prior known creations.

NOTE: In principle, these prior creations are not limited in time or space. They may also be protected by other legal instruments, such as trademarks or copyright,  Owing to the complex nature of the search and the subsequent analysis, it is strongly advisable to take great care over this stage of the process, and to enlist the services of a professional such as an industrial property consultant (see list).