DESIGN LAW:
EUROPEAN UNION AND UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

CONTENTS

Part One – Foundations

Chapter 1 - Origins and Rationales

• Justifying design law
• Historical origins

Chapter 2 - Legal Etymology

• Legal aspects
• Social and economic factors
• Design classification
• Terminology

Chapter 3 - International Perspectives

• The Major intellectual property instruments
• Design related conventions and agreements

Chapter 4 - Repair Parts: A Law and Economics Perspective

• A dilemma
• Market failure and competing substitutes
• Compulsory licensing
• Complementary/complex products with components
• Controlling the after market through refusal of protection
• The “repair” clause – a comparative analysis
• A law and economics approach to repair parts – UK and US

Part Two - European Union

Chapter 5 - An Overview

• History of EU Design Policy
• Justification for EU Design Law
• Design, copyright or trade mark?

Chapter 6 - Registered Community Design

• Protectable designs:
  1. – Excluded designs
     – Criteria of protection
     – Scope of protection
     – Infringement
     – Excepted acts and defences
     – Ownership
     – Duration of protection
     – Invalidity
     – Registration procedure

Chapter 7 - Unregistered Community Design

• Relationship between the registered and unregistered regimes
• Protectable designs
• Infringement
• Ownership and duration
• Invalidation

Chapter 8 - Distinctive Shapes, Trade Marks and Unfair Competition

• Justifying shapes trade marks
• Shape exclusions - art.7(1)(e)

Chapter 9 - Copyright and Unfair Competition

• Cumulation principle under EU law
• Why harmonisation is impossible
• Copyright protection in the United Kingdom
• Unfair competition law

Part Three – United States

Chapter 10 - Design Patent Law

• Legislative history
• Protectable designs
• Novelty
• Originality
• Non-obviousness
• Ornamentality
• Functionality
• Scope of protection and infringement
• Rights and duration

Chapter 11 - Copyright Law

• Historical background
• The “separability” doctrine
• “useful article”
• Conditions and scope of protection
• Rights conferred and duration of protection

Chapter 12 - Trade Mark and Trade Dress

• Trademark under Lanham Act
• Trade dress under Lanham Act
• Functionality doctrine
• State unfair competition
• Vessell hull design protection

Part Four – Looking Towards the Future

• Two tier regimes
• Alternative paths
• Holistic approach