Industrial Property Law

Article L. 512-1 of the Intellectual Property Code provides that the application for registration must be filed, failing which it is invalid, with the Institut national de la propriété intellectuelle (INPI) when the applicant's domicile or registered office is in Paris or outside France. Where the applicant's domicile or registered office is in France but not in Paris, the application may, at the applicant's option, be filed with the INPI or with the clerk's office of the Commercial Court or, where there is no Commercial Court, with the clerk's office of the court having jurisdiction in commercial matters, which forwards it to the INPI.

Article R. 512-1 of the same code stipulates that the application for registration of a design must be filed at the INPI's head office, or sent there by post or electronic means, in accordance with the conditions specified by judgment of the INPI's director general. However, the latter has made it compulsory for applications to be filed exclusively in electronic form. Since 16 October 2017, all French design applications, subsequent exchanges between INPI and users of its services, as well as certain number of procedural acts such as the request for rectification of a material error, declaration of withdrawal, waiver of deferment of publication, must be filed electronically via INPI's e-procedures portal (https://eprocedures.inpi.fr.) .

The date of filing is the date of receipt of the application at the INPI. The validity of the right attached to a design application is assessed according to the law applicable on that date .

INPI, Design Guidelines, Design registration procedure, https://www.inpi.fr/sites/default/files/directives_dessins_et_modeles_procedures_enregistrement_mai_2021.pdf

Cass. com. 6 February 2007, LawLex202100002715JBJ; Cass. crim. 27 June 2018, LawLex202200002926JBJ,

455. Filing of application with INPI