CABINET CHAILLOT

For a natural person: name, first names, nationality and address ;

For a legal entity: legal name, legal form and address (if the applicant is a foreign company, we shall indicate: company incorporated according to the laws of ... ).

Name, first names.

Each of the designs is represented by at least one view (reproduction) and up to seven views, such as perspective view, front view, rear view, side view, top view, bottom view. One filing may contain up to 100 reproductions.

A same filing can include more than one design (multiple filing), if :

• they are all from the same class of the International Classification of Locarno, and
• they are filed in the name of the same applicant(s).

For each design, we need to know the indication of the article to be protected; and for each reproduction, a title indicating for example the view or the aspect of the represented article; and optionally, a description of the represented article having 10 lines maximum.

The protection will be conferred only to the features as represented; the optional descriptions have no legal value, the scope of the protection being only defined by the reproductions.

The reproductions must be provided as .jpg, .jpeg, .png, or .tif.

A design already filed abroad can be filed in France under claiming of the basic foreign filing, if the French filing occurs within a six-month period from the basic foreign filing.

Please forward us an official copy of the priority document (which can be still validly filed within three months from the French filing) together with a translation of the main page of the priority document.

If the priority document is in the name of another person than the applicant of the French design, an assignation of the priority rights is requested together with its French translation. A simplified form can be filed; please ask it to us if you wish.

A registered design is protected for a 5-year period, renewable by successive 5-year periods up to a maximum of 25 years from the filing.

It is possible at the filing to request the first renewal of 5 years.

We need to have your instructions as to the immediate publication or the three-year postponement of the publication. Concerning the latter possibility, we could add that a renouncement of the postponement may be filed with the payment of a fee, at any time. The renouncement applies to all the designs of the application.

It is desirable to file the design with the secrecy provision (in other words with the postponement of the publication) in order to date and protect the creation without revealing its existence to a competitor and without disclosing the design, which may be very important for the protection of the design in foreign countries (in case of a basic French filing).

The disadvantage of requesting the secrecy provision appears when the design's owner wishes to take action for infringement of the design, because, before publication, action can only be taken if the aggrieved party proves bad faith of the infringer.

It is possible for the companies which "frequently renew the shape and the decoration of their products" to use the simplified filing :

• a sole reproduction is sufficient ;
• only the filing fee is due (no reproduction fee) ;
• the publication is automatically postponed to 3 years.

When the owner wants to renounce to the postponment :

• the renouncement to postponment can be for a part only of the designs ;
• it is necessary to file the reproductions of interest according to the requirements of a non-simplified filing ;
• it is necessary to pay the fee for renouncement to postponment.

If the renouncement of the publication postponment is not requested 6 months before the end of the 3-year period, the complete or partial forfeiture of the design can be established.