Design law

Are you a creative person? And have you created something that is new and has a character all of its own? Then you have two options: you can enjoy your creation for yourself, or you can market and, above all, protect your design.

You can do this yourself at any time as a natural person, a creative team or a company. The better alternative: instruct our law firm and gain more. More time for you, thanks to our experience. More certainty through expert advice. More value through registering a design that is strategically tailored to your needs. And more protection, because we work with you to define the representations of your creation precisely.

About us in brief

We love designs. And we love creativity. In every conceivable form. That is why protecting your creation as well as possible is a personal concern for us.

The calculation is quite simple: from us you always get expert advice, a preliminary search to minimise the risk of existing prior registrations, and recommendations on a design application that suits your plans, to the extent that you need design protection.

So you can rest assured: we treat your design with the same care and dedication as our own favourite designer piece.

The design application

Important to know first: design protection is only available if two conditions are met.

The design must be new

It must not previously have been placed on the market, exhibited or otherwise made public.

The exception, the grace period: have you already published your design yourself? If the application is filed within 12 months of that, the design is still legally regarded as new.

The design must have “individual character”

The overall impression it makes on the observer must differ noticeably from the existing design corpus. How much distance is needed depends on the degree of freedom available in developing the design. As a rule of thumb:

• Limited design freedom, high design density: for products such as smartphones or car parts, the limits are narrow. Here, even small differences can be enough for protection.
• Wide design freedom: for furniture or toys, the creative possibilities are huge. Here, a correspondingly large distance from existing designs is needed.

As is often the case with industrial property rights, protection begins with a few key questions:

WHO can apply to register a design?

Quite simply: any natural person (such as freelance designers, inventors or private individuals) and any partnership with legal capacity (companies, associations and others). If several people have contributed to developing the design, they hold the right to the design jointly. They are then entered in the register as co-owners.

WHAT would you like to register?

Design law protects visual appearance. Depending on your product portfolio, the office distinguishes between three basic categories:

• Three-dimensional designs: objects, shapes, furniture or packaging.
• Two-dimensional designs: patterns, fabrics, graphic logos or packaging prints.
• Digital designs: user interfaces (GUI), app templates or icons.

The application is then made in close consultation with you and is tailored precisely to your product range and your market strategy:

WHERE would you like to claim protection?

Depending on where you intend to sell your products or have them manufactured, we strategically adapt the geographical scope of protection for your design.

National protection in Germany

This option is ideal if your economic focus is primarily on the German market. Registration is carried out by the German Patent and Trade Mark Office and secures exclusive protection for you throughout Germany.

EU-wide protection as an EU design

With just one single application to the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), you secure protection in all current and future EU member states. This is cost-effective and straightforward for growing companies.

One advantage results from the EU design law reform, which fully entered into force on 1 July 2026. Since then, digital products, graphical user interfaces and dynamic animations, for example app menu movements as a video file, can be comprehensively protected.

International protection via an international design registration (IR design)

If you are aiming to market your products worldwide, we can use a central international procedure under the Hague Agreement to extend protection in a targeted way to more than ninety countries, such as the USA, China or the United Kingdom. An important difference from trade mark applications: no national basic application is required.

National protection directly abroad

Should you require tailored protection in specific target countries outside central agreements, for example in individual Asian or South American markets, we manage the application directly in the country concerned. To do this, we draw on our worldwide network of specialised correspondent lawyers to obtain design protection for you in these regions too.

WHICH products do you need protection for?

Physical products

If you offer classic, tangible goods.

The classic field of application. From consumer goods (furniture, clothing, watches) and packaging to complex industrial machinery or its individual components.

Digital products

If you offer user interfaces or graphics.

The digital world is also made up of designed products. Graphic symbols, icons, typefaces and user interfaces (GUI) of apps and websites are all eligible for protection.