| Summary: | Because of the significant differences among the laws of member states in the field of design and patterns, by Council Directive No. 98/71/EC of 13 October 1998 on the legal protection of patterns and designs, the European Parliament has implemented a patterns and design protection system adapted to the needs of any domestic market.Based on Directive No. 98/71/EC, the Council Regulation (EU) No. 6/2002 of 12 December 2001 on community designs and patterns has been issued, being compulsory in all its elements and applying directly to all member states. Thus, a special legal protection has been provided, which is meant to encourage individual creators to bring forward innovation, the development of new products and investments in their manufacturing. In order to implement the provisions of Regulation (EU) No. 6/2002, the Commission Regulation (EU) No. 2245/2002 of 21 October 2002 has been adopted. All these regulations are intended to provide protection of designs and patterns, and for this purpose two forms of protection are deemed necessary, i.e. a long-term one, corresponding to unregistered designs or patterns, and a short-term one, corresponding to registered designs and patters. In this paper we shall present in detail these forms of protection, as well as the substantive and formal conditions necessary to be fulfilled for the registration of designs and patterns. The presentation shall be founded on the legal regulations mentioned above that are enforceable and binding also on the Romanian territory, a legal protection of design and patterns being thus provided not only inland but also intra-community. The purpose of this paper is to also highlight the necessity of design and patterns protection, a sine-qua-non condition for the development of new products and investments.
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