Protection by a registered design right does not affect other intellectual property rights in the product, in particular unregistered design rights, patents and trademarks. The question of copyright protection is left to the laws of the Member States, which apply different criteria of originality to the copyright protection of the “applied arts”; However, the fact is that the existence of the registered design right does not prevent the design from being protected by copyright. For the proper functioning of the internal market, it is therefore necessary to approximate the design laws of the Member States. In the absence of harmonisation of copyright, it is important to establish the principle of cumulation of protection under the specific right to protect registered designs and copyright, with Member States being free to determine the scope of copyright protection and the conditions under which such protection is granted. 1. The scope of protection of a design right shall include any design which does not create a different general impression on the informed user. There are two types of intellectual property rights (IPRs): industrial property, which includes patents, trademarks, industrial designs and appellations of origin; and copyright, which includes artistic and literary property. Directive 98/71/EC on the legal protection of designs and Regulation (EC) No 6/2002 on Community designs form the backbone of EU law on Community designs. It is essential for the proper functioning of the internal market to harmonise the term of protection of registered designs. Upon registration, a design which satisfies the requirements of Article 3(2) shall be protected by a design for one or more periods of five years from the date of filing. The right holder may see the term of protection extended by one or more periods of five years each up to a total duration of 25 years from the date of filing.
The scope and conditions under which such protection is granted, including the level of originality required, shall be determined by each Member State. Until the date on which amendments to this Directive are adopted on a proposal from the Commission in accordance with Article 18, Member States shall maintain their existing legislation on the use of a design element used to repair a complex product in order to restore it to its original appearance and shall make amendments to those provisions only where the objective is: liberalize the market for these coins. 1. Member States shall protect designs by registration and confer exclusive rights on their holders in accordance with the provisions of this Directive. 2.
