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Design 

We offer legal advice on all issues related to design law

A good design can be decisive for the company's competitiveness and it is therefore important to protect it. Design law is part of intellectual property law and can include anything from legal considerations when developing new products to defending your design when you suspect it has been infringed.

What does design law mean?

Design law, also known as industrial design law, protects the appearance of a product. Crea-tors of a design can use design law to obtain an exclusive right to their design and to defend their designs if they suspect they have been infringed by competitors.

Design protection is mainly obtained through registration, but an unregistered design may also be protected. There are different types of design protection, for example you can acquire pro-tection for your designs at the national level (in Sweden) or an EU-wide design protection.

Internal procedures are important for strong design protection

Before investing in product development and marketing initiatives, there are many advantages to conducting searches in various registers to see whether there are any similar products on the market that have previously been granted design protection. The results of this research can form an important basis to help the company decide whether it is a good investment, even at the planning stage.

It may also be applicable to investigate other considerations or assessments of design law when a new product is being developed. For example, it may be important to assess which parts of a product may be worthy of protection, which forms of protection could apply and are relevant in relation to the specific product, and the ownership of the different parts of the prod-uct.

In addition to the preparatory research for new designs, the long-term management and moni-toring of design protection is important. This includes constant monitoring of both companies' own existing designs and new design applications from competitors.

How we help your business if you have questions about design law

Vinge's lawyers are specialists in design law with extensive experience of supporting and rep-resenting Swedish and international companies in design law matters in a wide range of indus-tries. Our lawyers bring together academic excellence and extensive commercial experience, so they can advise on all matters relating to design law and the most appropriate and cost-effective protection.
We file design applications with the Patent and Registration Office (PRV) and the EU Intellec-tual Property Office (EUIPO), and others, and we facilitate the work of large global design ap-plications in close cooperation with various law firms around the world.

Vinge also helps you with:

  • Regular monitoring of existing designs and renewal of registrations, as necessary
  • Regular monitoring of competitors' design applications that could potentially damage the company's own designs
  • Providing strategic legal advice on how the company can maintain and enhance the legal value of the design
  • Regular drafting, reviewing and negotiating agreements based on design law, such as licensing agreements, assignment agreements, coexistence agreements and cooperation agreements

We also have extensive experience in design disputes and regularly engaged to act as counsel in court and in arbitration proceedings.

Lawyers with extensive experience in design law

Our law firm can provide professional advice in all areas where design plays a major role. Our clients include companies in the following sectors: food, clothing, telecommunications, insur-ance, media, energy and manufacturing. We also work with advertising agencies and other players who focus on advertising, PR, branding, design or digital marketing.

Find out more about Vinge

If you want to find out more about our law firm or our other practice areas, you will find more information here >.

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