Germany, Design Act

On June 1st, 2004 a new Design Act came into force. The main features of the new Act are: – extension of the term of protection to 25 years from the previous 20. – possibility of protection of spare parts, in contrast to the Community Design – lower threshold for protection – extension of the grace period from 6 to 12 months – multiple applications with up to 100 designs, instead of the previous 50.