Till 8th May 2020 the owners of registered Community Designs may submit their entries to the international contest DesignEuropa Awards.
Every owner of a valid Community Design may submit it for the contest DesignEuropa Awards 2020 organized by the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO).
The contest is held every two years and its main objective is to raise awareness of the industrial design protection system and to promote industrial designing as a valuable intellectual property right.
Why is it worth protecting industrial designs?
Industrial designing is the element of innovativeness and strategy of modern enterprises, which allows to gain advantage over the competition. For the world’s biggest enterprises industrial designing is an integral part of the process of new product creation, as it happens, for example, in Apple. From the very beginning, Steve Jobs prioritized not only the quality, but also the appearance of products. Apple’s designing stands out from the competition beginning from the design of icons up to the very look of the finished product.
However, as it frequently happens, a functional and attractive product does not only attract consumers attention, but it is also an eyecatcher for competitors and potential infringers.
Undoubtedly, registration of an industrial design is relatively cheap and fast. Obtaining protection resulting from registration of an industrial design increases the value of the product, it gives its owner the exclusive right to use the design, and it works as a deterrent against potential infringers or imitators.
It is already at the stage of a new product creation when conducting the search for similar industrial designs is recommended in order to check whether the given work does not infringe the rights of any third parties. From the tactical point of view, the filing of an application for registration of an industrial design should be made at the moment of finalizing the process of product creation, shortly before its publication in the Internet, or its display at a trade fair in a given sector, and before the very moment of introducing it on the market.
The design contest in the EU
DesignEuropa Awards is a good opportunity to present one’s design at the international level.
Any entity having a valid protection right from registration of an industrial design in the territory of the European Union (RCD) can submit its entry to the contest. However, it is required that the submitted design is present on the market and the product being the subject of the design is sold in at least one member state of the EU.
Practical information:
- There is no entry fee,
- A submitted design must be valid at the time of sending the application, with no pending invalidity proceedings against it,
- Candidates can submit up to five entries (one design per entry), provided that each design has been designed by a different designer, or by a team of designers with at least one different member.
The panel of judges may nominate up to four finalists in two categories:
- Industry (for companies with 50 or more employees, and with a turnover or balance sheet total of EUR 10 million or more),
- Small and emerging companies (for companies with fewer than 50 employees and with a turnover or balance sheet total of less than EUR 10 million; or companies established on or since 1 January 2016).
The finalists will be invited to the DesignEuropa Awards ceremony in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, which will be held in October 2020. The winners, apart from international fame, will receive the trophies and certificates.
All the finalists will be featured on the Internet website of EUIPO and in international promotional materials.
The finalists in 2018
In the last edition of the contest there were two finalists from Poland – the companies Braster S.A. and Fibar Group S.A.
An intercom of the company Fibar Group S.A. enables a remote control of access to the user’s home with video imaging in full HD by means of a wide-angle camera and an application. This intelligent door bell is protected under the Community Design No. RCD-002679852-001:
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| The product available on the market | Registered Community Design |
The second nominated Polish design was Braster – a design for a device for breast self-testing, registered under the number 003352715-0001 in the name of a Polish company Braster S.A.
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| The product available on the market | Registered Community Design |
It is also worth mentioning that the jury panel grants an award for designers overall achievements. In the last contest such award was granted to Hartmut Esslinger, who cooperated among others with Apple, Disney or Yamaha.
More information about DesignEuropa Awards contest and the previous finalists can be found under the following link: https://euipo.europa.eu/ohimportal/pl/dea-home
Nina Zabielska (Jankowska) is a patent attorney in Trademark and Industrial Design Department at Patpol.. She is a graduate of e-business at the Warsaw School of Economics and a graduate of law at the Kozminski University. Contact with the author
