Some aspects of establishing the conformity of an industrial design to the criteria for protection

Abstract

Keywords: registered industrial designs, novelty, individual character, administrativeprocedure, invalidity
 The new edition of the Law of Ukraine «On the Protection of Rights to Industrial Designs» No. 3770-XII,adopted on October 14, 2020, introduced significant changes to the regulation of thelegal protection of industrial designs. The basic norms of the law were harmonizedwith the articles 212−217 Chapter 9 «Intellectual Property» of the Association Agreementbetween Ukraine, on the one hand, and the European Union, the EuropeanAtomic Energy Community and their Member States, on the other hand. The conceptsof «individual character», «the overall impression», «the informed user» and «thedegree of freedom of the designer», «the circles specializing in the relevant industry»have been introduced into the sphere of legal protection. These concepts were not previouslyused in the legislation of Ukraine. The article analyzes the content of theseconcepts on the basis of European law enforcement practice, Decision of the EuropeanUnion Intellectual Property Office Board of Appeal, Judgment of the Court of Justiceof the European Union и Judgment of the General Court of the European Union. Inaccordance with the new edition of the Law, an industrial design can be declared invalidin an administrative procedure. Authors reviewed the administrative procedure
 for establishing the conformity of a registered industrial design to the criteria for protection(a novelty and an individual character). A registered industrial design shall beconsidered to be new, if no identical design has been previously disclosed to the publicand to have an individual character if the overall impression it produces on the informeduser differs from the overall impression produced on such a user by any previouslydisclosed design. A design shall be deemed to have been made available to thepublic (i) if it has been published following registration or otherwise, or exhibited,used in trade or otherwise disclosed, (ii) except where these events could not reasonablyhave become known in the normal course of business to the circles specializing inthe relevant industry in Ukraine. Authors analyzed this two-step test. Particular attentionwas paid to the disclosure of industrial designs as a trade mark, copyrightwork, patent, utility model or otherwise on the Internet. Criteria for assessing disclosureof designs on the internet considered.