COMMUNITY DESIGNS
court cases between the two IT giants Apple and Samsung concerning the design of smartphones and tablet computers.
A useful instrument
In January 2012, the District Court of Düsseldorf, Germany, granted Apple an interim injunction prohibiting Samsung from selling its Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet computer on the basis of its outer appearance having infringed the rights of Apple in an RCD. At the end of July of that year, the same court prohibited the sale of the Galaxy Tab 7.7 mini tablet computer while the Superior District Court in Munich ruled that the same device did not infringe Apple’s patent rights in touch screen technology. T e Highest Dutch Court, on the other hand, held in May 2013 that the Galaxy Tab 10.0 did not infringe the rights of Apple in the RCD on which the action was based.
It is not important whether one agrees with one decision or the other. What these cases highlight is the value of RCDs in protecting a company’s IP rights and that major players have begun to use this instrument alongside patents and trademark registrations to defend not only their IP but also their market share.
“IT WILL BE UP TO THE OWNERS OF DESIGN RIGHTS TO WORK CLOSELY WITH THEIR LEGAL ADVISERS IN ORDER TO MAKE THE BEST POSSIBLE USE OF THIS LOW-COST BUT EFFICIENT TOOL.”
T is has led to increasing numbers of cases before the national Community Design Courts and the Courts of the EU in Luxembourg during the past years. In an important decision at the end of 2012, the General Court held that in cases involving designs, the informed user has to be understood as a particularly observant one, either because of personal experience or due to extensive knowledge of
the sector concerned. However, this does not mean that the informed
user is automatically able to diff erentiate between elements of the appearance of a product which are merely dictated by its technical function and those which are pure design elements.
In an important step towards facilitating the search for earlier rights, in 2012 OHIM launched Designview, as part of the Cooperation Fund (CF) programme. T is is an Internet platform allowing users to search the databases of those national offi ces participating in the programme, as well as that of OHIM itself, for design registrations. Like the TMView database, which is also maintained by OHIM, Designview is available in all offi cial EU languages and is updated on a daily basis. T e number of participating
currently, registrations in Bulgaria, the Benelux Offi ce, Estonia, Spain, Greece, Latvia, Portugal, Slovakia and OHIM itself can be searched.
In addition, and also in the context of the CF programme, OHIM is developing the Search Image project. Its goal is to make it easier to search for images in databases and it is intended to apply to trademarks as well as to registered designs. Due to the multitude of shapes and forms designs can have, this seems a very
countries is increasing and
110 World Intellectual Property Review September/October 2013
www.worldipreview.com
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