Estados Unidos de América

Islandia

Dibujos y modelos industriales

11. Please describe the methods by which industrial designs are protected in Iceland, in particular: (a) the form or forms of intellectual property used to protect the design (e.g., patent, copyright, sui generis); (b)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; (c)the nature of the rights granted and the term of protection provided; (d)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 (e)whether any exceptions to protection or rights exist for each type of intellectual property involved.

In Iceland we have a special law for the protection of industrial designs, the Design Protection Act, No. 48 from 1993 which entered into force on 21 May 1994. (a)The Icelandic Design Protection Act establishes a sui generis system for the protection of industrial designs. (b)A design has to be distinctive and Article 2(2) defines what is considered to be a distinctive design. A design is considered distinctive if it has not been made accessible to knowledgeable persons in the field concerned before the dates referred in Article 6, and if its overall impression from the user's point of view differs significantly from designs with which they are already familiar. A design has to fulfil these two conditions to be protected. A design's overall impression has to be distinctive; it is not enough to add something new to a design if it does not change the overall impression from the user's point of view. Design protection can be obtained in two ways: by registration and by making the product accessible to the public. There is no ex officio examination by the registration authorities as to distinctiveness or prior rights, but according to Article 18 an investigation may be required to determine whether a certain design is identical or similar to another design. (c)Article 5(1) of the Design Protection Act contains a description of the nature of the rights granted by registration and Article 5(2) pertains to the unregistered protection. Registered protection of a design shall last up to five years from the day on which the application for registration was filed. Registration may be renewed for periods of five years each up to a total term of protection of 25 years (Article 23). An unregistered design shall enjoy protection for a period of two years from the date it was first made accessible to the public (Article 22). (d)In Section V of the Design Protection Act, there are provisions concerning declaration of invalidity and the right of appeal. Protection of a design (registered and unregistered) can be declared invalid by the courts (Article 25). Registered design protection can also be declared invalid by the registration authorities (Article 26). In Section VII there are provisions concerning punishment, sanctions etc. According to Article 35 an injunction may be issued. The rules on criminal proceedings apply to legal proceedings under Article 36. Fines, detention or imprisonment up to three months is the punishment for anyone who on purpose infringes against the exclusive rights conveyed by the protection of a design. According to Article 37, anyone who on purpose or through negligence infringes the right to design protection shall pay reasonable compensation for the exploitation and for other damages. (e)There are no exceptions.