Registration of industrial designs in Serbia – Every company that owns an industrial design and intends to expand its business in the Serbia market should use the Serbia intellectual property system. It is paramount for businesses to file an industrial design application in Serbia for industrial designs, even if the launch of the respective product on the market in Serbia has not yet commenced.
Requirements for Industrial Design Registration Application in Serbia
An industrial design application in Serbia requesting the right of priority must be filed within 6 months from the priority date.
The following information and documents need to be provided in the application for registration of an industrial design in Serbia:
- name, address, and nationality of the applicant, business address;
- request for design registration;
- design description;
- representation of a design.
The POA submission deadline is not specified by the IP Office. Instead, the examiner provides an invitation after the application has reached its turn for examination, establishing a deadline of 60 days from its receipt if the applicant fails to provide a simple signed original of the Power of Attorney at the time of filing, there is a chance of an extension.
For industrial design applications where the priority is to be claimed it is necessary to provide the certified copy of the priority document within 3 months from the filing date. The legalised translation into Serbian is required.
When filing the application, or shortly thereafter, if the applicant is not the designer, a statement detailing how the applicant obtained the designer’s permission to do so should be included. Assignment Deed submission has a limited time set by the IP Office of Serbia, and extensions of the specified period are rarely granted.
Examination of an Industrial Design Application in Serbia
Applications for designs are examined by the Serbian IP Office for formal and substantive (novelty and individual character) conformity. However, since the substantive examination is carried out automatically, the applicant is not obliged to provide a request for it.
Validity period and renewal of industrial designs in Serbia
If the time between disclosing the industrial design and the application filing date, or, if priority rights are claimed, until the priority date, is less than 12 months, disclosure is not taken into account.
After receiving an invitation from the Serbian IPO, you must pay the official fee for granting an industrial design in Serbia (often within 10 days of receiving the invitation). If the required maintenance fees are paid, an industrial design in Serbia has a 25-year validity period starting from the date of filing. Along with the grant money, the maintenance fees for the first five years are due in one single sum. The 6th through 25th-year annuities are paid yearly, but no sooner than six months before the due date, before the last day of the month in which the anniversary of the filing date occurs. Within a grace period of six months following the due date, late payments are permitted with the payment of a commensurate fee.
Represented by an industrial design registration attorney
An international applicant for an industrial design registration in Serbia should perform an industrial design search in Serbia through a law firm, or an industrial design attorney.
You can see a list of Serbia IP firms here.
