Designs

Design protection is the suitable type of intellectual property right if you want to protect the look or shape of your product.
New products that are part of a collection or series can be protected as a group in so-called multiple applications.

Strategic advice on the registration of designs, elaboration of individual strategies to safeguard your creative products

Similarity searches and compilation of market overviews

Design applications in Germany at the German Patent and Trade Mark Office (DPMA) and Community design applications in the EU at the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) as well as by way of the Hague Agreement concerning the International Deposit of Industrial Designs at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

National design applications abroad via our worldwide and long-standing network of colleagues

Cancellation procedures

Design enforcement

Responding to or preparing warning letters

Design portfolio management

Monitoring and payment of renewal fees

Licence agreements

Registration
We will work with you to determine whether a single or multiple application is possible for your new product design. We select the optimal images of the design for the application together with you. We prosecute your application through the registration procedure with the respective authorities.
Foreign applications
Design protection can also be extended abroad by registration. The easiest way to do this is to obtain a Community Design, which is valid in all Member States of the European Union. In countries that recognise the International Registered Design, we can also directly apply for the registration on your behalf.

When registering national designs abroad, we work with local colleagues, in many cases with whom we have been co-operating for decades.

Design defence and enforcement
After registration of your design, we advise you in the event of attacks on legal validity and represent you in cancellation proceedings.

We support you as a design owner to enforce your claims. We check whether competitors’ products infringe your registered IP rights or your unregistered Community designs. We carry out correspondence on your behalf to resolve possible conflicts, for example in the case of cease-and-desist letters, and we support you in legal infringement proceedings.

We are also your first point of contact if third parties believe that their rights have been infringed by the manufacture or distribution of your products. In such cases, we check whether there is, in fact, an infringement of IP rights and represent your interests vis-à-vis the third parties who claim that their IP rights have been infringed.

Licence agreements
Well-designed products can be used in many ways. If you wish to cooperate with distribution partners or outsource production, registered designs can provide the basis for licensing agreements. We can assist you with licensing negotiations, including drafting contracts.