Products are designed to be functional and to look nice. The appearance of the product can add commercial value to it and so make it more appealing to the consumer. If a product is produced on a commercial scale, its appearance may be registered as an industrial design. If only one is produced, this is not an industrial design, but is protected by copyright as a ‘work of art’.

Designs can be registered country by country (either nationally or through the International Registration system operated by WIPO) or in the European Union as a whole. Registration provides the owner with the exclusive right to exploit that design, and this right can be enforced not only against those who copy the design, but also against those who independently come up with a design which is too similar to that which is registered.
In order to be registrable, the design generally needs to be new and original at the time the application is filed, although some territories allow a period of grace before filing. The interpretation of ‘new’ and ‘original’ also varies by country, and in practice, fairly similar designs are often accepted for registration. There are usually provisions for the owner of an earlier registration for a similar design to object though. The period of protection varies from country to country, but generally designs are registered for five year periods, being renewable every five years for up to 15 to 25 years.

A design does not necessarily need to be three-dimensional to be protectable. Patterns and images applied to the surface of a product (eg a textile) can also be protected. Some stylized trade marks, logos and shape marks could also be registered as designs, as can fonts.

The Design Registers can usually be searched by those who wish to use a design, and want to ensure that they do not infringe the rights of others. Registration can therefore act as a good deterrent. As registration is usually quick and relatively inexpensive, it is readily available to even small and medium-sized businesses, where other forms of Intellectual Property protection may be too costly.