The legal protection granted to designs in Italy and at the Community level is changing rapidly and affords new, simple and inexpensive ways to ensure protection of important assets. While businesses are spending increasing amounts of money to make products appealing to their customers, it is important to be aware of which legal tools may be used to protect such investments.
This article briefly illustrates the legal protection of designs, which may be obtained through registration at the Italian level. Further, registration of a design may also be obtained for multiple jurisdictions by means of an international registration pursuant to The Hague Agreement. Lastly, a unified protection throughout Europe is afforded by the Community design.
