Estados Unidos de América

Francia

Dibujos y modelos industriales

10. Please describe the methods by which industrial designs are protected in France, in particular: -the form or forms of intellectual property used to protect the design (e.g., patent, copyright, sui generis); -the conditions that must be satisfied to obtain the grant of such protection (e.g., whether designs must be new or original and the parameters of these concepts), and a brief description of the registration or granting procedure; - the nature of the rights granted and the term of protection provided; -the nature of remedies available to the owner of each type of protection, including a description of the conditions that may be imposed (e.g., whether commercial use is required); and -whether any exceptions to protection or rights exist for each type of intellectual property involved.

Systems of protection Industrial designs may be protected by copyright (Intellectual Property Code, Book I), as well as by the law relating to designs, where an application has been filed (Intellectual Property Code, Book V). The two types of protection may be cumulative. Designs the form of which is inseparable from the functionality may be protected only by patent (patent rights and design rights are not cumulative). Requirements for protection Copyright protection arises from the fact of creation alone, without formality of filing (Intellectual Property Code, Article L 111-1). The criterion is that of originality, i.e. the stamp of the author's personality. With respect to designs, Article L 511-3 of the Intellectual Property Code indicates that the criterion is that of novelty (designs must "differ from similar articles" and reveal a creative effort). The novelty of a registered design is not destroyed by publicity prior to the filing, where such publicity is by the owner (Intellectual Property Code, Article L 511-6). The appreciation of novelty and originality results from a comparison between, on the one hand, the created design and, on the other, the designs having an earlier date of creation. The latter are called priority designs ("antériorités"). They are timeless, universal and must be all of a piece (in other words they cannot be combined). Term of protection In the case of copyright, the term of protection runs for the author's life and 50 years after his death (the post mortem term should shortly be raised to 70 years). The filing of a design confers protection for 25 years from its date, renewable once (for a total term of 50 years: Intellectual Property Code, Article L 513-1). Nature of the rights conferred In the case of rights relating to designs, Article L 511-1 of the Intellectual Property Code provides "that the creator of a design or his successors in title shall have the exclusive right to exploit, sell or have sold such design under the conditions laid down in this Book" [Book V - Industrial Designs]. Nature of remedies This question refers to the "Civil and Administrative Procedures and Remedies" section of the TRIPS Agreement, which is scheduled for review in November 1997. Exceptions to rights granted The exceptions provided in the case of copyright under Article L 122-5 of the Intellectual Property Code are in principle applicable, although hardly adapted to works of applied art. No exceptions are provided for by the law relating to designs.