Design Law

The Italian Industrial Property Code (Decree Law No 30/2005) contains a number of articles (from 31 to 44) on the protection of designs – i.e. the outward appearance that gives value to an object.

To be eligible for protection, designs must meet two criteria:

• Novelty: the design of a product must not be identical to that of an already disclosed one;
• Individual character: in the eyes of an informed user, the design is “new” if it is sufficiently different from previous designs.

Design protection is achieved by registering the design with the relevant offices – at national, Community or International level – and lasts 5 years, renewable for a further 5 years up to a maximum of 25 years.

Sometimes an individual does not want to (or is no longer in time to) register the design. In such cases, the law still provides protection, albeit in a more limited and less extensive fashion. According to Community Law, a design is protected for 3 years from the first disclosure, which means from the first time the design was made available to the public.

If design works possess artistic value, they are deemed to be “industrially applied art” – rather than mere industrial design. In this case, designs can be protected under Authors’ Rights (“diritto d’autore” in Italian Law) and are therefore protected for up to 70 years after the author’s death.

Some European countries do not distinguish between “applied industrial art” and “industrial design”. For instance, in France, any design work is protected by Authors’ Rights from its creation. Application for design registration is therefore only optional.