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The Trade Marks and Designs Registration Office of the European Union
An application may be filed online (recommended), by fax (not recommended because of the quality of the representations) or by mail. Should you wish to file the application by fax or by mail, the Office makes a form available for the RCD application.
The minimum requirements to register a design
You need to complete an application form with:
and pay the fees.
Single/multiple application
For a multiple application, the applicant can file as many designs as he wishes, the only condition being that the products to which the design is applied belong to the same class of product. Classification is referred to as the Locarno system. This condition does not apply when an application concerns ornamentation.
The only upper limit concerning the number of designs within a multiple application relates to an application made online. In this case, the upper limit is of 99 designs per application.
Claiming priority
Priority may be claimed on the basis of a previous (first) application(s) of a design or utility model (but not on the basis of a patent application) filed in or for a State which is party to the Paris Convention or a member of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Priority can only be claimed where the application for a Community design is filed within six months from the date of filing of the first application(s).
In order to avoid the loss of your right to priority, it is highly recommended that the priority is claimed in the application. The claim of priority needs to be supported by a priority document which is recommended to be enclosed with the application.
While the maximum number of views taken into account within an RCD application is seven, if you wish to use your RCD application as the basis for a Priority Claim in a subsequent design application to be filed in another registration system that requires more views, additional views may be included in the RCD application. The surplus views will be archived in the RCD application file and if you ask OHIM for a certified copy of your RCD application to submit as the basis for your priority claim, this copy will contain all the information relating to the RCD application, including the surplus views.
Deferment
Publication may be delayed for up to 30 months and your product may therefore remain confidential until you are ready to disclose it. You may even choose not to publish it at all and your registration will then lapse after the 30 month period. The request for deferment must be made on the application form; late requests will not be accepted.