Industrial Property Law

The registration of a design grants its holder a proprietary right (Article L. 513-2 of the Intellectual Property Code), which enables them to prohibit any third party from using it without their consent . The specific object of the right over a protected design in effect lies in the ability of its holder to prevent third parties from manufacturing, selling, or importing, without consent, products incorporating the design . Article L. 513-4 of the Intellectual Property Code thus provides a non-exhaustive list of acts that the owner of the design may oppose. In particular, the manufacture, offering, placing on the market, importation, exportation, transshipment, use, or possession for those purposes of a product incorporating the design held by the rightsholder are prohibited when carried out without consent . Since acts suspected of infringement fall under the law in force at the time they were committed, these provisions, stemming from the Ordinance of 25 July 2001, apply to any dispute concerning acts committed after its entry into force, even regarding designs filed prior thereto.

The rightsholder’s consent to the exploitation of their title is not subject to any formality, which distinguishes it from the formal consent required under copyright law by Article L. 131-3 of the Intellectual Property Code. However, the mere fact that the rightholder tolerated the exploitation of their design by a third party cannot constitute a waiver of an intellectual property right, unless it can be demonstrated that they gave their definitive consent to such exploitation .

Cass. crim., 9 September 2003, No 02-82.822, LawLex202100003357JBJ; CA Paris, 19 September 2012, No 10/23477, LawLex202200001178JBJ.


See ECJ Case C-23/99 Commission v France, Judgment of 26 September 2000, LawLex200500004918JBJ.
 


Former Article L. 511-1 of the Intellectual Property Code, prior to the Ordinance of 25 July 2001, provided that any creator of a design and their successors in title have the exclusive right to exploit, sell, or cause to be sold said design. See, e.g., CA Nîmes, 24 September 1998, No 96-4391, LawLex200200001087JBJ.

CA Paris, 20 November 1998, No 1998-04101, LawLex200200001048JBJ.

471. Exclusive right of exploitation