Priority for Community Design applications for six months, but not any more
29-03-2024 Print this page
Neither Article 41 Community Designs Regulation nor Article 4 of the Paris Convention provides for a 12-month period for design priority rights. Art. 4 of the Paris Convention has no direct effect in the European Union. The right of priority for filing a Community design application is governed by Article 41 of Community Designs Regulation. General Court erred in law by directly applying Article 41(1) Community Designs Regulation to right of priority based on patent. Article 41 Community Designs Regulation does not permit an application for registration of a patent to form the basis of a right of priority for a subsequent application for registration of a Community design. Time limit for claiming a right of priority is six months, as expressly stated in Art 41 Community Designs Regulation. Under Article 4 Paris Convention, a claim of priority for a design application cannot be made on the basis of an earlier patent application. It follows from a common reading of Sections A and C of Article 4 that the subsequent application must relate to "the same subject matter" as the earlier application which forms the basis for the right of priority. The claimed right of priority is more than six months before the application and rightly denied, judgment under appeal set aside.
IPPT20240227, CJEU, EUIPO v KaiKai
