Industrial Property

Protection of a non-registered industrial design.

Indeed, on their own neither the novelty (absence of previous identical designs) nor the singularity (general distinct impression on the part of the informed user) of a design confers “distinctiveness” on a product per se as this, which is employed so that a company's products are perceived by consumers as unique, responds to other parameters which can be generated by factors other than the exterior form of the product, such as the company's specialisation, use of new technologies, trademark image, product quality, innovative nature and better capacity and response time, etc.

The question therefore involves determining whether the features of the plaintiff’s design have the characteristics that make it singular enough for the recipient (see Spain’s Supreme Court Sentence of 11 May 2004) to identify a particular business origin through them, in such a way that imitating or copying these elements makes it the type described in article 11-2 LCD (Ley de Competencia Desleal, or Unfair Competition Law).