Título III Capítulo III. Diseños industriales

The provisions relating to invention patents are, where applicable, applicable to registrations of industrial designs, to the extent they do not contravene the special provisions contained in this chapter.

The protection conferred on industrial designs does not exclude or affect such protection as may apply under other legal provisions, such as those relating to trademarks or copyright.

The protection of an industrial design shall not comprise:

a)Those elements or characteristics thereof determined entirely by the performance of a technical function and which do not incorporate any novel contribution of the designer; and

b)Those elements or characteristics whose reproduction is necessary to allow the product incorporating the design to be mechanically assembled or connected with another product of which it constitutes a part or integral piece. This limitation shall not apply in the case of products in which the model lies in a form intended to allow the multiple assembly or connection of the products, or their connection within a modular system.

The right to protection and registration of an industrial design belongs to the designer, without prejudice to the provisions of the following paragraph. If the industrial design was created by two or more persons jointly, the right to registration and to obtain protection for the same shall belong to them in common.

The right to registration of an industrial design and to obtain protection therefor may be alienated to a natural person or juridical person, by act inter vivos or transferred by succession.

The holder of an industrial design shall acquire the right to legal protection therefor, as a result of any of the following acts:

a)The first public disclosure of the industrial design, by any means and in any place, carried out by the designer or their successor in title, or by a third party who had obtained the design as a result of any act performed by either of them; or

b)The registration of the industrial design.

The provisions of subparagraph a) of the preceding paragraph do not limit the right of its holder to register the industrial design.

An industrial design shall be protected if it is new. To be considered new, the design shall differ to a significant extent from known designs or from combinations of features thereof.

An industrial design that has not been publicly disclosed, anywhere in the world and by any means, before any of the following dates, whichever is earliest, shall be considered new:

a)The date of the first public disclosure by the designer or his successor in interest, or by a third party who had obtained the design as a result of an act performed between them; or

b)The filing date of the application for registration or, as applicable, the filing date of the application whose priority is claimed.

For purposes of assessing the novelty of an industrial design that is the subject of an application for registration, disclosure occurring within the six months preceding the filing date of the application or, as applicable, the filing date of the application whose priority is claimed shall not be taken into account, provided that such disclosure resulted directly or indirectly from acts performed by the designer himself or his successor in interest, or from a breach of contract or unlawful act committed against either of them.

An industrial design shall not be considered new if, with respect to a prior design, it presents only differences that are insufficient to give the product a different overall appearance or impression from that of the prior design. * Denied the partial general action of unconstitutionality for relative omission brought in File Number 2112-2016 on 27-12-2017

An industrial design that complies with the provisions of articles 4 and 151 of this law shall enjoy protection without need for registration for a time limit of three years, counted from the date of the disclosure indicated in subparagraph a) of the first paragraph of article 151.

The protection of an industrial design under this article shall be independent of that obtained through its registration.

The protection of an industrial design confers upon its holder the right to act to prevent third persons, without its consent, from manufacturing, selling, importing, offering for sale, using or in any manner commercially exploiting articles that bear or incorporate an industrial design that is an identical or similar reproduction of the protected design.

The registration of two or more industrial designs may be requested in a single application, provided that all of them apply to products of the same class.

The application for registration of an industrial design shall be filed with the Registry and shall contain the requirements established in Article 103, subparagraphs a) and b), for a patent application and, in addition, shall designate the kind or type of the product or products in which it will be used.

The following documents shall be filed with the application:

a)Proof of payment of the established fee;

b)The graphic or photographic reproduction of the industrial design in duplicate, with more than one view to be submitted if it is three-dimensional; in the case of two-dimensional designs, the reproduction may be replaced with a sample of the product incorporating the design; and

c)The title by virtue of which the right to the industrial design was acquired, if the applicant is not the designer.

The Register shall note the date and time of filing on the registration application, shall assign it a file number and shall deliver to the applicant a receipt for the same and for the documents submitted. The Register shall proceed in accordance with the preceding paragraph, even if the application does not contain all the information referred to in Article 103(a) and (b) or all the documents required by Article 156, both of this law, are not attached, provided that it at least complies with the data that allow identification of the designer, the applicant or its legal representative, if applicable, and a place to receive notifications is indicated, as well as that the reproduction or sample mentioned in subparagraph (b) of the second paragraph of the preceding article is enclosed.

The maximum time limits established in Article 114 of this law shall be reduced to twelve months in the case of industrial designs.

The registration of an industrial design shall remain in force for a term of ten years, counted from the filing date of the application.

The registration of an industrial design may be renewed a single time for a term of five years, counted from the expiry of the original term. The respective application shall be filed with the Registry “within the” sixty days before the expiry date of the registration, together with proof of payment of the established fee. *Amended by Article 29 of Decree Number 3-2013 of 26-06-2013.

The reproduction referred to in subparagraph (b) of the second paragraph of Article 156 of this Law shall be added to the registration of the registration of an industrial design and to the corresponding certificate.