Design protection in France

Whatever the sector, design helps create added value, enhance technical inventions, differentiate from competitors and win over consumers.

It is particularly important to protect one's creations effectively, to guard against their appropriation by competitors and to maintain a real capacity for differentiation and attractiveness on the market.

The French Intellectual Property Code provides for different protection regimes for aesthetic creations, which are not subject to the same substantive and formal conditions. A strategy for protecting creations must therefore be determined on a case-by-case basis.

The purpose of this sheet is to explain the various protection options available to creators of three-dimensional designs and shapes, the conditions that must be met, and their advantages and limitations.