Community design

A Community design is a unitary industrial design right that covers the European Union. It has both unregistered and registered forms. The unregistered Community design came into effect on 6 March 2002 and the registered Community design was available from 1 April 2003. A Community design is a unitary industrial design right that covers the European Union. It has both unregistered and registered forms. The unregistered Community design came into effect on 6 March 2002 and the registered Community design was available from 1 April 2003. Council Regulation (EC) No 6/2002, as implemented by Commission Regulation (EC) No 2245/2002, created both unregistered and registered European Community designs. The Community design is a unitary right that has equal effect across the European Union. The unregistered form of the right has existed since 6 March 2002 while the registered form came into effect on 1 April 2003. A design is defined as 'the appearance of the whole or a part of a product resulting from the features of, in particular, the lines, contours, colours, shape, texture and/or materials of the product itself and/or its ornamentation'.