Overview of Industrial Design Registration Systems

Legal protection of designer/holder of industrial design rights in different countries is subject to meeting certain requirements such as novelty, originality, individual character or combination of them. Such a protection is not limited to registration phase and it will bear fruit in litigation. Legislators, depending on the circumstances e.g. resources and development policies and comparative advantage, chose the time and form of examination. Some prefer examination in registration stage, while others considers judicial authority is more appropriate to examine substantive requirements. Other countries have taken in between approach  and applied a hybrid system. this article elucidates and analyzes different examination systems and then tries to determine legislator choice for Iran design rights regime. Despite the fact that years have passed since adoption of 2006 Act, identifying examination system of 2006 Act and clearing the cloud regarding this matter is yet a challenging and controversial subject.