The Voivodeship Administrative Court (VAC) in Warsaw in a judgment of 29 September 2009, case file VI SA/Wa 211/09, held that according to article 102(1) of the IPL which provides that

any new and having individual character appearance of the whole or a part of a product resulting from the features of, in particular, the lines, colours, shape, texture or materials of the product and its ornamentation, shall constitute an industrial design

the prerequisite for registration as an industrial design is the recognition that there is the “appearance of the whole or a part of a product”, and therefore the subject of the application is visible on the outside. The conditions of novelty and individual character should be examined later. An invisible item, hidden from the visual perception of the buyer, or the “end user” (consumer) does not constitute an industrial design. It does not have a form of “a product” which meas its appearance. It’s not about the appearance of the component of a product which is visible after separated from the whole, but it is about the possibility to get visually acquainted with it when you buy it, and especially – during the so-called normal use.

This case concerned the industrial design “Ogranicznik wylewu” (in English: overflow limiter), Rp-9737.

See also my post entitled “Polish case law on industrial designs“.

Categories: Art. 102 IPL | Polish Act on Industrial Property Law | Polish courts | Polish law | Voivodeship Administrative Court | appearance of the whole or a part of a product | industrial designs | novelty of an industrial design.