Component design

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Component design is a registered design that protects a component that is part of a complex product .

prehistory

In Design Law old version (GeschmMG aF) was not provided for a specific design protection for individual components of a complex whole. At the same time, more recently, the design protection for trading and manufacturing has commercial gained noticeably in importance. Today, it is not uncommon for high sales figures to be achieved through an attractive design rather than through technical finesse of the product in question, which some authors attribute to the modern affluent society. However, the need for component protection in design law arose in particular from the trade in spare parts for complex products, e.g. B. Automobiles : If only the entire product, e.g. If , for example, a car is accessible to design protection, but not its individual (visible) components, this enables any manufacturer to provide spare parts , such as fenders , bumpers , headlights, etc., for the complex overall product, in the example an automobile, to deliver without running the risk of being prosecuted for design infringement by the owner of the automobile design. For this reason, the automotive industry in particular has advocated component protection in design law at European level. The efforts in this regard ultimately led to Directive 98/71 EC, the aim of which was to modernize design protection in the individual member states of the European Community (EC). Directive 98/71 was transposed into national law in 2004 by the Federal Republic of Germany in the form of the new version of the Design Act (GeschmMG nF), now referred to as the " Design Act " (DesignG).

Legal basis

With the amended DesignG (among other things) the possibility was created for the first time to obtain design protection for individual parts of a complex product. The legal basis for component protection is § 4 DesignG. The rule reads: "A design that is used in a product that is a component of a complex product or that is incorporated into this product is only considered to be new and only has peculiarity if the component that is incorporated into a complex product which remains visible when used as intended and these visible features of the component themselves meet the requirements of novelty and individuality ".

The requirements in detail

Component of a complex product

The design must be used for a product, which is a component of a complex product, or inserted into the complex product. Example: Tail light designed as a design that is intended to be inserted in the rear of a car .

Intended Use

The complex product must be used as intended - together with the inserted component designed as a design.

visibility

The component inserted into the complex product and designed as a design must be visible (from the outside) when the complex product is used as intended .

Novelty and individuality

The visible features of the component designed as a design must themselves meet the requirements of novelty and individuality. In other words, it is not sufficient if the complex product is (only) new and has its own character, but not the inserted component as such. According to Section 2 (2) DesignG, a design is "new if no identical design has been disclosed before the filing date. Designs are considered identical if their features differ only in insignificant details".

According to Paragraph 3 of the aforementioned provision, a design has individual character "if the overall impression it creates on the informed user is different from the overall impression that another design creates on this user that was disclosed before the filing date The degree of creative freedom of the designer is taken into account when developing the design ".

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Law on the Copyright of Designs (Design Law) of January 11, 1876 (RGBl. P. 11) (Federal Law Gazette III, p. 442-1), amended by the law amending the Design Law of December 18, 1986 ( BGBl. I, p. 2501), by the law to strengthen the protection of intellectual property and to combat product piracy (PrPG) of March 7, 1990 (BGBl., P. 422) and by the law amending the patent law and others Laws of March 23, 1993 (Federal Law Gazette I, p. 366)
  2. ↑ a b c Dietrich Scheffler, Special features in the defense of claims from parallel utility models and designs in the event of unlawful removal of intellectual property, in: Journal "Mitteilungen der Deutschen Patentanwälte" (Mitt.), Munich 2005, p. 216
  3. ↑ So already: Ekkehard Gerstenberg, Michael Buddeberg, Registered Design Law, 3rd edition, Heidelberg 1996, p. 31
  4. ↑ Directive 98/71 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the legal protection of designs from October 13, 1998, reproduced. in the journal "Blatt für Patent-, Muster- undzeichenwesen" (BlPMZ) 1999, SS 24 ff
  5. ↑ Law on the legal protection of designs (Design Law - GeschmMG) of March 12, 2004 (BGBl. I, p. 390), amended by Article 7 of the law of July 7, 2008 (BGBl. I, p. 1191)

literature

  • Dietrich Scheffler, Novelty and peculiarity of designs according to old and new law - a comparative study, in: Rundbrief Deutscher Verband der Patentingenieure und Patentassessoren (VPP) No. 3, Munich, September 2004, pp. 97 ff
  • Dietrich Scheffler, Special features in the defense against claims from parallel utility models and designs in the event of unlawful removal of intellectual property, in: Journal "Mitteilungen der Deutschen Patentanwälte " (Mitt.), Cologne, Berlin, Bonn, Munich 2005, p. 216 ff
  • Ekkehard Gerstenberg, Michael Buddeberg, Design Law, 3rd edition, Heidelberg 1996
  • Hans Furler, The Design Law, 3rd edition, Cologne, Berlin, Bonn, Munich 1966