The Commission adopted a Regulation which sets the setting the basic registration fee for a first design at € 230, with lower fees for any further design registered at the same time. Registrations will need to be renewed every five years - up to the maximum of 25 years - at a cost of €90 for a first renewal up to €180 for a fourth.
There are two types of EU-wide protection for designs: the "Registered Community Design" which must be registered with the OHIM, and the "Unregistered Community Design".
In both cases, to be eligible for protection, designs must be new and must have an individual character (in other words it must be apparent to the public that they are different from products which existed previously.)
The main difference in the level of protection afforded will be that a Registered Community Design will be protected against both deliberate copying and the independent development of a similar design. An unregistered design will be protected only against deliberate copying.
The OHIM will begin registering Community designs from 1st April 2003.
Internal Market Commissioner Frits Bolkestein said:
"I am very pleased that we have been able to set these fees at an affordable level. This is the last piece of the jigsaw and we can now put the new system of Community registered designs into practice. It will foster creativity and innovation by making it easier to protect designs throughout the Internal Market with a single application. The Regulation will also help fight counterfeiting and piracy."
