After registration, the holder has a 5-year monopoly of use, which can be extended to 25 years from the date of filing.
During these 5 years, the life of the design may include several stages:
- Its renewal by periods of 5 years up to 25 years (i.e. 4 renewals) according to article L513-1 of the French Intellectual Property Code (ICP).
- Its use, since the holder has a monopoly of use on the territory where the registration was made, he/she alone can benefit from it.
- Its use by a third party via the granting of a licence or its transfer, since a design right is a property right according to Article L513-2 of the CPI. It is indeed a valuable asset.
- Its surveillance, since the holder has the right to prohibit third parties from manufacturing, selling or importing products containing the design or model, in the form of an imitation or by reproducing significant elements, according to Article L513-4 of the IPC.
- Its defence with the infringement action, as a registered design, is a dissuasive means of action in the event of infringement, even if the third party is acting in good faith (i.e. the infringer does not have knowledge of the design).
- Its extension abroad, knowing that the holder has a priority right of 6 months after the filing date to extend his/her design abroad while benefiting from the retroactivity of the protection date to the filing date in France, while not being considered as a disclosure. The owner can apply for an EU design via the EUIPO, or in 17 African countries via the African Intellectual Property Organisation (OAPI), or with the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) to extend in other countries via a single procedure, or separately with local institutes.
