What is an industrial design?
How are industrial designs protected?
What is a design patent?
What kinds of designs cannot be protected?
What is Locarno Classification?
What is the Hague Agreement Concerning the International Deposit of Industrial Designs?

What is an industrial design?
Taken from http://www.wipo.int/aboutip/en/industrial_
designs.html
“An industrial design is the ornamental or aesthetic aspect of an article. The design may consist of three-dimensional features, such as the shape or surface of an article, or of two-dimensional features, such as patterns, lines or color.”
“Industrial designs are applied to a wide variety of products of industry and handicraft: from technical and medical instruments to watches, jewelry, and other luxury items; from housewares and electrical appliances to vehicles and architectural structures; from textile designs to leisure goods.”
“To be protected under most national laws, an industrial design must appeal to the eye. This means that an industrial design is primarily of an aesthetic nature, and does not protect any technical features of the article to which it is applied.”

How are industrial designs protected?
Taken from http://www.wipo.int/about-ip/en/about_id.html
“In most countries, an industrial design must be registered in order to be protected under industrial design law. As a general rule, to be registrable, the design must be "new" or " original". Different countries have varying definitions of such terms, as well as variations in the registration process itself. Generally, "new" means that no identical or very similar design is known to have existed before. Once a design is registered, a registration certificate is issued. Following that, the term of protection is generally five years, with the possibility of further periods of renewal up to, in most cases, 15 years.”
“Depending on the particular national law and the kind of design, an industrial design may also be protected as a work of art under copyright law. In some countries, industrial design and copyright protection can exist concurrently. In other countries, they are mutually exclusive: once the owner chooses one kind of protection, he can no longer invoke the other.”
“Under certain circumstances an industrial design may also be protectable under unfair competition law, although the conditions of protection and the rights and remedies ensured can be significantly different.”

What is a design patent?
Taken from http://inventors.about.com/od/designpatents/a/
design_patent.htm
“A design patent protects only the ornamental appearance of an invention, not its utilitarian features.”

The USPTO definition of a design can be found at: http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/
design/definition.html

What kinds of designs cannot be protected?
When the design of an object is determined primarily by its function, the object is found to lack “ornamentality” and may not be protected under industrial design or design patent laws. A design must also be original in order to be afforded protection. Furthermore, the use of the object must be apparent and its ornamentality of commercial concern. Additional requirements may apply. For example, in the United States a design patent cannot be granted for offensive subject matter.

What is Locarno Classification?
The Locarno Classification contains classes and subclasses of goods which incorporate industrial designs. For example, Class 11 covers Articles of adornment while Class 21 contains Games, Toys, Tents, and Sport Goods. In all there are 32 Classes with 223 subclasses. In total the list contains characteristics of 6,831 types of goods.

Taken from http://www.wipo.int/hague/en/classification.html
The Locarno Classification is based on a multilateral treaty administered by WIPO. This treaty is called the Locarno Agreement Establishing an International Classification for Industrial Designs, which was concluded in 1968. This Classification is commonly referred to as the Locarno Classification. The Agreement is open to States party to the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property.”

What is the Hague Agreement Concerning the International Deposit of Industrial Designs?
Taken from http://www.wipo.int/hague/en/
“This system gives the owner of an industrial design the possibility to have his design protected in several countries by simply filing one application with the International Bureau of WIPO, in one language, with one set of fees in one currency (Swiss Francs)..”