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For those who is not familiar with Design Right

In these days, designs of products have attracted a lot of attention. This is because product performances are less different due to progression of technologies and more consumers put more weight on designs than on performances. As a result, quite a lot of well-designed products have successfully won a market and enjoyed sales growth.

However, there are some cases where a product imitating a design of such a successful product is on the market. If the “copy of design” is admitted, a designer of the product cannot obtain adequate benefits even though he/she produces the good design.

In view of this, “design right” is important to protect such a “design of a product” as a property.

In order to obtain a “design right”, it is necessary to “file an application” so that your design is registered. Once you obtain the “design right”, no one can copy your design. If someone sells a product that copies your design, you can request the seller to stop selling the product.

However, if you do not obtain the “design right”, other people may obtain a “design right” on a design similar to your design before you obtain the right. In such a case, even if you produced the design first, the right holder may request you to stop selling the product. In other words, in order to protect yourself, it is quite important to obtain the “design right”.