In accordance with the legislation of the Republic of Belarus the exclusive right to an industrial design is protected by the State and is certified by a patent. The scope of legal protection conferred by an industrial design patent is determined by the graphic representations (models, drawings) of the article embodying the industrial design.
The exclusive right over the exploitation of an industrial design includes the right to use the industrial design in one’s own discretion, assuming this does not violate the rights of others, and the right to prohibit others from using the industrial design.
The owner of a patented industrial design has the exclusive right to use it during the term of the patent starting from the date on which the particulars of the grant of the patent were published in the Official Bulletin of the National Center of Intellectual Property.
The patent term covering an industrial design is 10 years from the filing date of the application. The term of the patent may be extended upon the request of the patent owner, but by no more than 5 years.
The application for the grant of a patent for the industrial design is filed with the patent authority of the Republic of Belarus – the National Center of Intellectual Property that carries out examination of the application and decides whether to grant a patent for the industrial design or to refuse to grant a patent.
The application for the grant of a patent for the industrial design must relate to one industrial design or to a group of industrial designs belonging to the same class of the International Classification for Industrial Designs under the Locarno Agreement adopted on October 8, 1968 (“requirement of unity of industrial design”).
The industrial design application is not examined to determine if the claimed industrial design meets the requirements of patentability. In the course of the expert examination of the application for industrial design, availability of the necessary documents and observance of the requirements established for them are checked, and the question whether the claimed proposal relates to subject matter of the industrial design is considered.
In order to be eligible for legal protection, an industrial design must be:
An industrial design is considered to be novel if it has not been disclosed to the public anywhere in the world before the priority date of the industrial design, and also includes, on condition of their earlier priority, all applications for industrial designs (except for those withdrawn) filed by other persons in the Republic of Belarus, and industrial designs that have been patented in the Republic of Belarus.
An industrial design is considered original if specific features of the outward appearance of the article result from creative work of the author (co-authors) of the industrial design.
The legal protection is not granted to the following:
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