“Designview” is a centralized access point to view the registered design information held by any of the participating National Offices in a unique presentation format, independently of which office the data is coming from. The design search tool is based on the data of the registers of the participating offices, the WIPO and the OHIM.
What is the design registration system?
If you need design protection you have the choice of registering with national, regional, or international design offices. These registration systems all provide legal protection for your design/s which is limited to the territories in which they operate. An organization that needs to do business in just one or two countries may choose to obtain protection by applying separately to the appropriate official national design registration offices (usually the PTO). Within Europe, wider geographical coverage (27 Member States) is also available with a single application at the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market of the European Union (OHIM). If your home country is a member of the “Hague Agreement”, you may also register your trade mark before the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), which can extend your trade mark protection to up to 60 countries. These different alternatives mean that you should be able to choose an option for legally protecting your design that fits your business needs.
What can Designview do for you?
Designview is an online consultation tool allowing any Internet user to search, free of charge, the designs of all participating offices, including OHIM and National Offices. It is multilingual and easy-to-use tool, and gives access to design applications and registrations provided by the participating offices though a single and unique platform. Each office owns the content it makes available and is responsible for its daily update.You can use Designview to:
1. Check the existing designs across Europe
2. Check market tendencies
3. Obtain easy access to post-registration services in harmonized way
4. Help users to check the novelty of a design
5. In legal administrative and legal processes, for example to help customs in their procedures judges in case of conflict between parties
6. Assist Offices, for example to carry out in-depth examination or to help examiners to check earlier priority rights
What is in Designview?
The accuracy of the data contained in Designview is the sole responsibility of the participating official Offices or organization providing it. Thus, in principle, Designview reflects with certainty the design registers of the participating Offices or Organizations at the moment of consultation.
1. Details on designs such as legal status, representations of designs, owner, representative etc.
2. Links to OHIM and national databases
3. Possibility to print and download documents
4. First hand information from the official design registers
For further information or assistance please contact “Ilieva, Voutcheva and Co” Law Firm.
