What is a Design?

• The aspect of a product or a part of a product is considered a design.
• The aspect of a product is, in particular, composed of the characteristics of the lines, contours, colours, shape, texture or materials of the product itself or of its ornamentation.
• Product is understood to be each object manufactured according to industrial or traditional methods and includes (inter alia) parts destined to be assembled within a complex product, as well as packaging, presentation, graphical symbols and typographical characters.

The design concerns both the product itself (and thus a three-dimensional creation) and ornamentation of the product (a two-dimensional creation).

The protection of a design can thus cover a large variety of products.

However, an idea (as such) cannot be protected. Only its realization can possibly qualify for protection.

Caution! A computer program is not considered to be a design, although it can possibly be protected by a copyright or a patent.