32002R0006

Council Regulation (EC) No 6/2002 of 12 December 2001 on Community designs

Official Journal L 003 , 05/01/2002 P. 0001 - 0024


Council Regulation (EC) No 6/2002

of 12 December 2001

on Community designs

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community , and in particular Article 308 thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission(1),

Having regard to the opinion of the European Parliament(2),

Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee(3),

Whereas:

  1. A unified system for obtaining a Community design to which uniform protection is given with uniform effect throughout the entire territory of the Community would further the objectives of the Community as laid down in the Treaty.
  2. Only the Benelux countries have introduced a uniform design protection law. In all the other Member States the protection of designs is a matter for the relevant national law and is confined to the territory of the Member State concerned. Identical designs may be therefore protected differently in different Member States and for the benefit of different owners. This inevitably leads to conflicts in the course of trade between Member States.
  3. The substantial differences between Member States' design laws prevent and distort Community-wide competition. In comparison with domestic trade in, and competition between, products incorporating a design, trade and competition within the Community are prevented and distorted by the large number of applications, offices, procedures, laws, nationally circumscribed exclusive rights and the combined administrative expense with correspondingly high costs and fees for the applicant. Directive 98/71/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 October 1998 on the legal protection of designs(4) contributes to remedying this situation.
  4. The effect of design protection being limited to the territory of the individual Member States whether or not their laws are approximated, leads to a possible division of the internal market with respect to products incorporating a design which is the subject of national rights held by different individuals, and hence constitutes an obstacle to the free movement of goods.
  5. This calls for the creation of a Community design which is directly applicable in each Member State, because only in this way will it be possible to obtain, through one application made to the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (Trade Marks and Design) in accordance with a single procedure under one law, one design right for one area encompassing all Member States.

    HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

TITLE I

GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1

Community design

  1. A design which complies with the conditions contained in this Regulation is hereinafter referred to as a Community design .
  2. A design shall be protected:
    1. by an unregistered Community design , if made available to the public in the manner provided for in this Regulation;
    2. by a registered Community design , if registered in the manner provided for in this Regulation.
  3. A Community design shall have a unitary character. It shall have equal effect throughout the Community. It shall not be registered, transferred or surrendered or be the subject of a decision declaring it invalid, nor shall its use be prohibited, save in respect of the whole Community. This principle and its implications shall apply unless otherwise provided in this Regulation.

Article 2

Office

The Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (Trade Marks and Designs), hereinafter referred to as the Office , instituted by Council Regulation (EC) No 40/94 of 20 December 1993 on the Community trade mark(6), hereinafter referred to as the Regulation on the Community trade mark , shall carry out the tasks entrusted to it by this Regulation.

TITLE II

THE LAW RELATING TO DESIGNS

Section 1

Requirements for protection

Article 3

Definitions

For the purposes of this Regulation:

  1. design means the appearance of the whole or a part of a product resulting from the features of, in particular, the lines, contours, colours, shape, texture and/or materials of the product itself and/or its ornamentation;
  2. product means any industrial or handicraft item, including inter alia parts intended to be assembled into a complex product , packaging, get-up, graphic symbols and typographic typefaces, but excluding computer programs;
  3. complex product means a product which is composed of multiple components which can be replaced permitting disassembly and re-assembly of the product .

Article 4

Requirements for protection

  1. A design shall be protected by a Community design to the extent that it is new and has individual character.
  2. A design applied to or incorporated in a product which constitutes a component part of a complex product shall only be considered to be new and to have individual character:
    1. if the component part, once it has been incorporated into the complex product , remains visible during normal use of the latter; and
    2. to the extent that those visible features of the component part fulfil in themselves the requirements as to novelty and individual character.
  3. Normal use within the meaning of paragraph (2)(a) shall mean use by the end user, excluding maintenance, servicing or repair work.

Article 110

Transitional provision

  1. Until such time as amendments to this Regulation enter into force on a proposal from the Commission on this subject, protection as a Community design shall not exist for a design which constitutes a component part of a complex product used within the meaning of Article 19 (1) for the purpose of the repair of that complex product so as to restore its original appearance.
  2. The proposal from the Commission referred to in paragraph 1 shall be submitted together with, and take into consideration, any changes which the Commission shall propose on the same subject pursuant to Article 18 of Directive 98/71/EC .

Article 111

Entry into force

  1. This Regulation shall enter into force on the 60th day following its publication in the Official Journal of the European Communities.
  2. Applications for registered Community designs may be filed at the Office from the date fixed by the Administrative Board on the recommendation of the President of the Office.
  3. Applications for registered Community designs filed within three months before the date referred to in paragraph 2 shall be deemed to have been filed on that date.

    This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.

    Done at Brussels, 12 December 2001.

    For the Council

    The President

    M. Aelvoet

    1. OJ C 29, 31.1.1994, p. 20 and OJ C 248, 29.8.2000, p. 3.
    2. OJ C 67, 1.3.2001, p. 318.
    3. OJ C 110, 2.5.1995 and OJ C 75, 15.3.2000, p. 35.
    4. OJ L 289, 28.10.1998, p. 28.
    5. OJ L 184, 17.7.1999, p. 23.
    6. OJ L 11, 14.1.1994, p. 1. Regulation as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 3288/94 (OJ L 349, 31.12.1994, p. 83).
    7. OJ L 299, 31.12.1972, p. 32. Convention as amended by the Conventions on the Accession to that Convention of the States acceding to the European Communities.