Foreign protection of designs can be obtained by registration of national design patents abroad.
To apply for registration of a design in several foreign states simultaneously, it may be advisable to undertake an international filing of the design concerned. This makes it possible to achieve registered design protection in all the member states of the Hague Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Industrial Designs with a single filing.
In addition, it is possible to register a Community Design which confers protection throughout the territory of the European Union (EU).
When filing foreign registered design applications, the applicant may claim the priority of an earlier national registered design application. The time limit for this is 6 months, calculated from the date of filing of the earlier registered design application.
