Design Registration Romania

Design registration in Romania

Here you can mandate us to protect your design. We will file a design patent application for you. Our offer includes the official fees for an application without an opposition or office action. Please find more information below.

The design of a product is one of the decisive factors for its market success. It can become an important asset of your company, particularly if it is a best seller.

In Romania a design is understood to be the appearance of a product or of a part thereof, in two or three dimensions, resulting from the combination of the main features, particularly lines, outlines, colours, shape, texture and/or materials of the product itself and/or its ornamentation. The scope of design protection shall be determined by the graphic representations of the registered design. The protection granted to a design on the basis of the present Law shall extend to any design that does not produce a different overall visual impression on an informed user.

A registered design right will give you the exclusive right to use the design. Throughout the period of validity of a design registration, the holder has the exclusive right to use the design in Romania and to prevent any third party not having his consent from using it there. The right holder has the right to prohibit third parties to perform, without his permission, the following acts: reproducing, manufacturing, putting on the market or offering for sale, importing, exporting or using a product having the design incorporated or applied thereto or storing such a product for the above mentioned purposes.

To obtain this excluive right, the entry in an official register is required. With the entry in the official design registry, you will receive the appropriate intellectual property rights for the shape and the design of your product. It protects the shape and colors of the product as shown in the register - from cars to lemon squeezer. The protection covers the design of three-dimensional objects - for example, furniture, cars and toys - as well as the design of two-dimensional objects - such as fabrics, wallpaper. Even logos, graphics or icons can login to design protection.

The term of protection of a certificate of registration of the design is of 10 years starting on the date of constituting the regular deposit and it may be renewed for three successive five-year periods. Throughout the period of validity of the certificate, the holder of the certificate is liable to pay the corresponding maintenance fees.

With the registered design patent, you can prohibit others to use the protected design without your consent in identical form. Furthermore all possible actions are included which relate to your design - for example, offering products in which your design is used, the production, sale or import and export, as well as the possession for these purposes. The scope of the design patent extends not only to identical imitations, but regularly also on all the products that provide the same overall impression as shown I the views of your design patent

Design protection arises with the registration of a design with effect from the date of filing of the application. Protection starts with a 10 year protection and can be maintained 3 times for 5 years each up to 25 years in total. In special cases only the protection may start before the date of filing the application if a priority claim of a foreign design application filed within the last6 months is possible and is requested with the new application.

Conditions for protection are the novelty and an individual character of your design.

The presence of these conditions is regularly not reviewed by the intellectual property office. Regularly a court wil decide about it in an infringement process. So failures done within the registration process cannot be cured in most cases.

For the registration your design you will need:

- the name of your design; br/>
- images showing only your product in front of a neutral (white) background, please provide us with black and white pictures or technical drawings reduced to the lines of the design without any further technical information that show the design views from all possible directions (bottom, top, left, right view etc.); br />
- contact details of the client; br />
- contact details of company or person to be registered as owner of the design right; br />
- name of the natural person(s) who created the design; br />
- a short description - if possible - of the design and its novelty, especially if the design has specific characteristics which can not to be seen in the views; br />
- in case of prior design application in a foreign country: please provide us with a copy or a certified copy of the application, receipt of the filing, file number and name of the patent office. br />
If you engage us we will render the following services: Preparation of the filing including selection of the classes of goods (Locarno-classes); Examination of the images in regard to the formal requirements (we do not review if the design is new and has an individual character); requesting for additional documents or new images; legal advice with regard to the filing process and documents; sending the prepared filing details to you for review; request a power of attorney, if the Office will required a legalization of your power of attorney the external fees for a notary certification and a court issued Apostille are expenses you will be charged separately; Filing the application at patent office; if the Office will required a legalization of documents the external fees for a notary and a court (issuing an Apostille) are expenses you will be charged separately; rRepresentation of the applicant in front of the office; Payment of the official fees (application fee, registration fee, publication fee); Transmission of office documents as well as the letter confirming the application; Legal advice in due time in order to enable you to extend the protection of your design patent to foreign countries by claiming the priority of the prior application; Receipt, checking and forwarding of the registration certificate (if available) and a copy of an extract from the register; Receipt and transmission of all documents sent from the patent office after the registration; Docketing and deadline, renewal time monitoring.

Foreign persons having their domicile or registered office outside the territory of Romania shall benefit by the provisions of this Law under the international design conventions to which Romania is a party.

As far as the registration proceed provides the possibility that third parties may submit an objection against your design application, such an opposition will arise a new matter. Therefore the representation and legal services in the new opposition matter shall be ordered and paid separately.

The same applies to complaints of the Office which do not concern only mere formalities or Locarno classes. If the office complain particularly in regard to drawings and / or pictures the answering and representation of such office action cause new matter. Regularly we do not expect such a complaint by the Office, in particular if the information that we provide to you before filing of the design application, are considered. But if it should come to such a case, we will inform you and start legal action only if you instruct us in writing form to answer and represent you within the Office Action matter.

Romania is member state of the EU. So you may also instead or beside file a Community Registered Design to get design protection in Romania.