Industrial design

WIPO says industrial designs are applied to a wide variety of products of industry and handicraft items, from packages and containers to furnishing and household goods, from lighting equipment to jewelry, and from electronic devices to textiles. They may also be relevant to graphic symbols, graphical user interfaces and logos¹.

In principle, the owner of a registered industrial design or of a design patent has the right to prevent third parties from making, selling or importing articles bearing or embodying a design which is a copy, or substantially a copy, of the protected design, when those acts are undertaken for commercial purposes¹. Article 26(1) of the TRIPS Agreement states the same right for the owner of a protected industrial design².

TRIPS sets minimum standards for WTO Members. Under Article 25(1), Members shall provide for the protection of independently created industrial designs that are new or original. They may provide that designs are not new or original if they do not significantly differ from known designs or combinations of known design features, and that protection does not extend to designs dictated essentially by technical or functional considerations². Article 26(3) says the duration of protection available shall amount to at least 10 years².

The Hague Agreement allows applicants to register an industrial design by filing a single application with the International Bureau of WIPO, which enables protection in multiple countries or regions with minimum formalities³. WIPO says no prior national or regional application is needed⁴. WIPO's Hague page, as accessed on 28 October 2026, lists 85 members, including all countries in the European Union and the African Intellectual Property Organization (OAPI)⁴.

• Who can use it. An international registration may be obtained only by a natural person or legal entity with a connection, through establishment, domicile, nationality or, under the 1999 Act, habitual residence, with a Contracting Party³.
• What the application contains. Up to 100 designs may be included if they all belong to the same class of the Locarno Classification. The application may be filed in English, French or Spanish, must contain reproductions of the design or designs, and must designate at least one Contracting Party³.
• Examination stays national. Each designated Contracting Party may refuse protection within 6 months, or possibly 12 months under the 1999 Act, from publication of the international registration, and only on the basis of requirements of its domestic law other than formalities and administrative acts. If no refusal is notified in time, the international registration has effect as a grant of protection in that Contracting Party, under its law³.
• Term. Five years, renewable for at least one five-year period under the 1960 Act, or two such periods under the 1999 Act. If a Contracting Party's legislation provides a longer term, protection of the same duration is granted there³.

An international registration is therefore a set of effects in the designated Contracting Parties, each under its own law, not one worldwide right³.

Regulation (EU) 2024/2822 amends Council Regulation (EC) No 6/2002, retitling it as a Regulation on European Union designs and replacing the term Community design with EU design throughout⁵. The amending Regulation applies from 1 May 2025, with certain listed provisions applying from 1 July 2026⁵.

In the United States, whoever invents any new, original and ornamental design for an article of manufacture may obtain a patent (35 U.S.C. 171)⁸. The provisions on patents for inventions apply to designs unless otherwise provided (35 U.S.C. 171(b))⁸. The statute provides for a term of 15 years from the date of grant (35 U.S.C. 173)⁹. The MPEP says design patents resulting from applications filed on or after 13 May 2015 have a 15-year term from the date of grant, while patents issued from design applications filed before that date have a 14-year term¹⁰. See Design patent.