Brussels, 01/04/2003 (Agence Europe) - The Office of Harmonisation in the Internal Market (OHIM), in Alicante, is to register Community designs and models from 1 April. Registration requests have been possible since 1 January 2003.
Community registration of designs and models confers upon right holders the exclusive right to use such models and protects them against systematic copying and the independent development of a similar design or model. This right covers the fifteen Member States before being enlarged to the new Member States as of May 2004. Registration must be renewed every five years, for a maximum duration of 25 years. The first registration costs 23 euros. Taxes for renewing registration range from 90 euros for the first request to 180 for the last.
For the time being, invisible parts or components to be integrated to make an apparatus work are not protected. The Commission should therefore present, in 2004, proposals for integrating provisions on spare parts in directives and regulations governing Community designs and models.
Since 1 January 2003, 700 requests for registration have been made, including 54% of the many requests concerning, for example, a range of products. Twenty three percent of these requests come from Germany, 12% from the United Kingdom, 10% from Spain, 7% from the Netherlands and Italy, and 6% from the United States, the Alicante Office states. English is the first language used for 30% of these requests, 20% of which are in German, and 14% in Spanish. The second language when submitting a request is English for 65% of the cases, French for 18% and German for 7.7%.
The first requests were, in 10% of the cases, for designs and models of packages and recipients, followed by transport means (mainly cars), furnishings, household appliances, registration devices, telecommunications and information technology, as well as clothing, toys and sports articles.