Community Design Experiences of a

Practitioner

Lantos, Mihály Hungarian and European Patent & Trademark Attorney,

Partner

Danubia Patent & Law Office

lantos@danubia.hu

The preparation of a community design application looks

easy, but it is everything but not simple, and the practitioner

has to run over lots of considerations when preparing an

application.

In this presentation 4 actual examples will be shown, and I

will try to explain what considerations have led for selecting

the illustrations used.

Basic objectives:

To provide the broadest protection

To minimize cost

To reduce problems of later interpretation and breadth of

protection

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First example: cigarette case

This is a comparatively simple shape, however, the problem

lies in that the client wished to use different (leather) cover

sheets on the top surface. To this purpose we had to show

the structure, i.e. an exploded view was shown with two

different kinds of cover sheets all having respective U-shaped

recesses.

The last picture was the bottom view only to show that the

bottom part was a simple uniform surface.

There was no need for any side views.

Altogehter 4 pictures were sufficient for the perfect illustration

of the cigarette holder case

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Amennyiben a szövegnek címe van

Szöveg beírása

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Amennyiben a szövegnek címe van

Szöveg beírása

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Amennyiben a szövegnek címe van

Szöveg beírása

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Amennyiben a szövegnek címe van

Szöveg beírása

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Amennyiben a szövegnek címe van

Szöveg beírása

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Amennyiben a szövegnek címe van

Szöveg beírása

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Example 2

A hygienic cabinet system, the upper part is a wiper

dispenser and the lower part is a storage bin for used

wipers.

Problems: the applicant had initially several designs and

wanted to have minimum costs.

Originally a first Hungarian design application was filed to

base priority, but as the actual realization was delayed, the

Hungarian design application was abandoned prior to its

publication. This process was repeated twice until the final

design was elaborated and chosen by the client.

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These applications contained 10 versions of cabinet designs

and a common picture showing all besides each other.

My advice was: the common picture cannot provide 10 individual protections, here a group application was required.

Later, the applicant selected only a single design and protected it as a single community design with four views (photos) without claiming priority. Question: how broad is the scope, whether it covers the similar but slightly different designs? The applicant chose a single filing owing to cost considerations.

Later this RCD served as a priority for several foreign design applications, and to that end graphics had to be made from 6 views as it is required in several countries.

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Amennyiben a szövegnek címe van

Szöveg beírása

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Example 3: display screenshot for language teaching

Basic concept: simple table, wherein the first column is the line number and the last column is a loudspeaker symbol. If one clicks on the loudspeaker symbol, the text inserted in the wide row will be loudly pronounced.

Several table arrangements are possible, but the two main versions: single table, single language, two tables side-by-side where the first table is the first language and the second is the second language.

Originally, the inventor provided over 100 versions, but owing to cost consideration the application was limited to these two versions.

How to make sure that in the wide row any text can be entered? Solution was to insert a dash-dot line frame in each row to indicate that the interior of the framed area does not form part of the design. This allows the use of any text in the framed area.

The example shows how a two-dimensional design can be protected. The main design element is the loudspeaker in the narrow column of the rows.

Question: whether the protection covers all table arrangements or not?

Remark: the word TABELLO at the upper central row is protected also by a Community Trademark

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Example 4: providing fast and efficient protection for a

mechanical construction: STRINGDRIVE, chainless bicycle

drive system.

The next slide shows how the central part of the bike looks

like. There is a triangular, hollow element that swings forward

and backward around a lower shaft, and this element is

specific for the drive.

Because patent procedure lasts long, it is costly, and the client

wanted an efficient and fast protection in the community, the

special design of the swinging member was filed as a design.

The shape is partly defined by the technical conditions but

partly by aesthetic considerations.

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The photo shows also a crank arm with two crank branches

closing an obtuse angle and having a ball bearing between

the connected branch ends. This design sharply differs from

usual crank arms. Therefore a group application was filed

with the last design showing the crank arm design.

Further problem: The general shape includes a grid-like

recess system, how can a protection be provided if a different

grid system is used?

Answer: a second design was prepared in the group with a

dash-dotted frame around the grid area to indicate that any

grid shape can be provided.

Last issue: because several foreign design applications were

based on design 1, it was illustrated by 6 pictures, one from

each direction.

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Conclusions:

The preparation of a community design application requires

close study:

of the nature of the design itself,

the intentions of the applicant

What kind of and how many illustrations are needed,

Photo or grapihc representation

Pictures in 6 views if foreign applications are required

If more than 1 design, then how many designs should be

included in the group?

Several other considerations which cannot be defined in

general

This work requires skill and experience, and not as easy as it

looks like at the first glance and can have huge influence how

the client can defend its interests later

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Thank you for your attention

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