Since 1st April this year, EU businesses have been able to protect their designs by registering them with the OHIM, based in Alicante. A fee of €230 buys exclusive rights to use the design for five years, renewable for up to 25 years, together with protection throughout the EU against both deliberate and inadvertent copying.
The new search engine will search all designs in each fortnightly Community Designs Bulletin. The Bulletins are very long and only available on-line, with each one covering each of the eleven official languages of the EU.
Given that this week's Bulletin alone runs to over 1,100 pages, the search engine is an important tool. It will enable interested parties to search the register for details of existing registrations, entries made after registration, and details of renewals or information on expired registrations.
Searches can be carried out and the official OHIM Bulletins can be downloaded from:
http://oami.eu.int/en/design/bull.htm
(Be warned: if downloading Bulletins, the PDF files are very large, some exceeding 10 MB)