Ukrainian Industrial Designs | General Overview

Services Related to Registration of Industrial Designs (Procedure, Steps, Cost)

The industrial design registration procedure involves at least 6 stages of meticulous work, during which a patent attorney builds up the scope of industrial design protection based on the client's needs.

Step 1. Confidentiality Agreement

Any information on patentable subject matter, applicant and author is confidential. Part of this information (which is eventually included into the application) remains confidential until the Industrial Design application is published. All other information (which was disclosed by the customer while drafting the application but eventually not included in the application) remains confidential even after the application has been published.

The DPL’s confidentiality obligations are set forth in the Confidentiality Agreement to be signed by DPL prior to getting started with receiving information from the customer and drafting the Industrial Design application.

After signing the confidentiality agreement, the patent attorney proceeds to the next steps.

Step 2. Initial information about the applicant, inventor and subject-matter of industrial design

(a) Designation of the applicant (future owner of the industrial design), settlement of relations between applicants

Options for designating the Applicant (future patent owner):

• An individual or a legal entity.
• One or more individuals/entities.

Rules to follow when designating the Applicant:

• Author — if the Industrial Design was created independently by the Author (not as an employee), or, if as an employee, where the employer refuses to register;
• Employer — if there is an agreement on allocation of rights to the Industrial Design between the Author and his/her employer, and the right to file the application has been assigned by the employee to the employer;
• Both Author and Applicant — if there is no agreement on allocation of rights to the Industrial Design between the Author and his/her employer. If there is no such a contract – should the Author be not designated as the applicant – the Author may file a claim to invalidate the Industrial Design registration on the ground of infringement of his/her rights.

Recommendations:

Before starting the industrial design registration procedure, it is recommended to conclude an agreement on the distribution of rights between the future owners of the industrial design certificate (applicants), if there are several of them, as well as to formalize relations with the investor (if any).

Without concluding a contract between applicants, each of them, after receiving a certificate for an industrial design, can independently use the industrial design at their own discretion, in particular, independently (for example, as an individual entrepreneur) manufacture the corresponding products. However, if such a co-owner of the certificate wants to use this industrial design in his own enterprise, he will need the permission of other co-owners, and this should be agreed in advance.

(a) Designation of the Author (future owner of the industrial design), settlement of relations between the Applicant and Author

Who should be listed as the author of the industrial design?

The person (group of persons) who actually invented a product/process as a result of their intellectual and creative activities should be designated in the Industrial Design application as the inventors. People who were involved in organizational work or financing should not be considered Authors.

Inappropriate designation of the Applicants and Authors does not affect the grant of a patent because the Ukrainian Patent Office (like patent offices of any other countries) does not verify such information, but this can have negative consequences if an aggrieved person files a claim to invalidate the Industrial Design registration.

Having received the above information from the customer, we discuss the options respecting the designation of the Applicant and Author.

Step 3. Identifying Patentable Subject Matter, Drawing up the Requirements Specification

The analysis of the details, disclosed by the customer on the patentaple subject-matter takes 5 working days. If there is no need for clarifying questions, we sign the Terms of Reference and proceed to the next steps.

Step 4. Drafting the Industrial Design Application

Drafting an Industrial Design application takes 7 working days on avarage. The exact term is to be agreed when discussing and signing the Requirements Specification, and depends on complexity of the Industrial Design and sufficiency of information disclosed by the Custromer.

Step 5. Filing and Prosecution of an Industrial Design Application

We file application materials within 2 days after they are approved by the customer.

Non-accelerated examination takes up to 8 months.

Where accelerated examination is ordered, it takes up to 20 working days.

Step 6. Obtaining a certificate for an industrial design

The publication fee is to be paid within 3 months following the positive Examiner's decision.

The Industrial Design certificate is granted within 2 months following the publication (registration).

Industrial Design Consultations

We provide consultations on matters related to the protection of Industrial Designs in Ukraine and worldwide, as well as written materials explaining the stages and cost of patenting.

Free of charge:

• The first 15 minutes of an oral consultation on Industrial Designs;
• Standard written materials on stages and costs of Industrial Design registration.

In most cases, free consultations and basic written materials are enough to decide and start working with us.

Send a request for a free consultation

Send a request for a free consultation