As soon as possible!
Only a regular filing with the Office grants the advantages of registering a design (refer to the section entitled “Why register a design? under the heading “What is a design? “).
Your rights begin on the date on which you file your registration application, which forms the official starting point for your protection, even if industrial property rights are only definitively acquired when the industrial design is definitively granted, i.e. entered on the National Designs Register.
Right of priority
If you have already registered your design in a Contracting State of the Paris Convention, you have six months (following the first filing date) in which to extend its protection to Monaco while continuing to benefit from the first filing date. Any applications filed by anyone else during that period will not be enforceable against you.
To raise a priority claim with the Office, you should send us an official copy of the first filing and indicate it expressly on the application form. If this copy is not in French, a translation must be provided with it.
IMPORTANT: If you are not the party claiming priority, you will need to supply written permission from the first applicant, authorising you to make the claim.