With effect as of 1 October 2001 the new Registered Designs Act comes into force in Denmark.
The Act implements an EU directive on the subject and has resulted in an amendment of the previous legislation on design registration, which at the same time will be repealed.
The previous Act on Registered Designs and the Copyright Act contain provisions on the aesthetic and artistic parts of a product - popularly: the appearance of the product. The new Registered Designs Act will take over from the previous act in this system and is thus to protect the aesthetic parts of a product.
Design is defined as "the appearance of a product or part of a product which is identified by the special features of the product itself or by its decoration, especially with respect to lines, contours, colours, shape, texture and/or material".
