Intellectual property

Properly construed, Art 110(1) of Council Regulation (EC) 6/2002 would not prevent registration of designs of component parts of complex products. It followed that Art 110(1) of the Regulation would operate as an exception to the right conferred by registration in particular circumstances of use of the design. The burden would lay on the defendant to establish that the exception applied. Further, Art 110(1) of the Regulation would be interpreted as being restricted to component parts which had been dependent on the appearance of the complex product. The language of Art 110(1) of the Regulation directed attention to what the part would normally be used for.