COMMUNITY DESIGNS
ambitious project. If, however, it is successful, it should make searching for earlier rights considerably easier and more reliable.
Overall, there is no reason why the RCD should not continue to be the success story it has been to date. 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 for defending the IP rights and the financial value of their companies.
Te impending rise of 3D printers in particular may well bring new and important possibilities of mass infringement of design rights. It is the very purpose of such printers to exactly reproduce the shape of existing objects by scanning the original and then reproducing it layer for layer until as exact a copy as possible has been achieved. It is in the interests of the owners of design rights to protect their designs against such potential infringement. Tis can be easily done by registering the designs for a period of up to 25 years in order to safeguard them against precisely this kind of piracy.
Since the costs involved in obtaining this protection are relatively low, this is a reasonably easy step to take, especially in addition to other forms of protection such as trademark
registrations for product names and distinctive device elements such as logos.
Te RCD should therefore be a part of the IP portfolio of a company in order to obtain comprehensive protection of IP rights without putting unreasonable strains on the available budget.
In view of the above, it is now up to the owners of design rights and their legal advisers to develop the correct strategies for developing, protecting and enforcing design rights. During the development stage, it is important to ensure that no third party rights are infringed by the finished design and that the designs are not made public too early, as this could have detrimental effects on protection. At the time of protecting the rights it is important to find the appropriate balance between different types of rights and obtaining the necessary protection without incurring unnecessary costs.
And at the enforcement stage, issues such as border seizure, jurisdiction, suitable actions and earlier rights need to be addressed.
Udo Pfleghar is a partner at Best Rechtsanwälte. He can be contacted at:
udo.pfleghar@
best-ip.eu
Udo Pfleghar trained in Melbourne and Regensburg. He worked at the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM) and in-house at Boehringer Ingelheim as head of the trademarks and domains group. He has been a partner at Best Rechtsanwälte since 2009 where he advises clients on design, trademark, domain and data protection issues. He is also a lecturer in law at the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences and a panellist for .eu ADR proceedings.
www.worldipreview.com
World Intellectual Property Review September/October 2013 111
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168 |
Page 169 |
Page 170 |
Page 171 |
Page 172 |
Page 173 |
Page 174 |
Page 175 |
Page 176 |
Page 177 |
Page 178 |
Page 179 |
Page 180 |
Page 181 |
Page 182 |
Page 183 |
Page 184 |
Page 185 |
Page 186 |
Page 187 |
Page 188 |
Page 189 |
Page 190 |
Page 191 |
Page 192 |
Page 193 |
Page 194 |
Page 195 |
Page 196