Protection of intellectual property rights in Ukraine: design solution

Abstract

Keywords: objects of intellectual property rights, trademark, utility model, copyrightand/or related rights, industrial design, unregistered industrial design, utilitymodel, commercial name
 The law of the fashion industry is a branch of law that regulates publicrelations arising in connection with activities related to products of the light andcosmetic industries. Creative products, such as fashion designs expressed in products,may be protected as intellectual property rights. A design solution embodied in a particularproduct may be protected by one or more intellectual property institutions.Design solutions in the field of fashion are not directly defined in the legislation,but their properties are reflected in the features of various objects of intellectual propertyrights. The design solution embodied in the product may include copyright, industrialdesign, utility model, trademark, geographical indication, trade name. However,if the product contains several objects of intellectual property rights at once, theauthor currently registers not all, but one/two due to the cost of registration (obtaininga certificate or patent). There is an example of a bag given in the article, whichshows how protection for an industrial design and a trademark can be received immediately.But there is no procedure for providing protection by design solutions.For comprehensive protection of a design solution in the system of cross-borderprotection of intellectual property rights, foremost it is necessary to introduce the conceptof «design solution» by law. Furthermore, since design solutions in the fashion industryare seasonal and short-term, the law should give «accelerated preferentialtreatment» to design solutions in the fashion industry. This means that, after a designdecision is registered, it is protected for one year. After one year, the designerspay the fees to officially register the intellectual property rights. This way, the designerscan understand the relevance and purchasing power of the goods and avoid payinghigh fees to register intellectual property rights.