The Maltese Patents and Designs Act provides for the protection of designs and models of manufacture. The Act defines “designs” 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. A design is considered to have individual character if the overall impression it has on the informed user differs from the overall impression produced by any other design which has been made available to the public before the date of filing of the application for registration or, if priority is claimed, before the priority date. A design right is protected for a period of five years from the date of filing of the application and is renewable for one or more periods of five years each up to a total term of 25 years.
Our firm is able to assist the client with the design registration procedure as well as assisting with the maintenance and renewals thereof.
In this area of law, our team is able to provide a comprehensive service including assisting clients in choosing the best structure/vehicle to hold their the designs for the purposes of asset protection and fiscal incentives
