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TRANSCRIPT
Community Design Experiences of a
Practitioner
Lantos, Mihály Hungarian and European Patent & Trademark Attorney,
Partner
Danubia Patent & Law Office
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
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Amennyiben a szövegnek címe van
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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
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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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