Filing a registration application for design or model, according to current national laws, serves the purpose of protecting the appearance of a whole product or of a part thereof as it is characterized, in particular, by the lines, contours, colors, shape, surface structure and/or by the materials of the product and/or of its ornament.
The term product means any industrial or craftsman produced object, including among others the components meant to be assembled to form a complex product, packages, presentations, graphic symbols and typographical characters, excluding computer programs.
Any design or model that is new and has individual character may constitute the object of registration.
A design or model is new if no identical design or model has been disclosed, and made accessible to the public, before the date of filing of the registration application. Designs and models are deemed identical when their characteristics differ only in irrelevant details. Based on a recent European Community standard, incorporated by Italian lawmakers, the design or model disclosed by the author or his assignee in the twelve months preceding the date of filing of the registration application is not deemed to be made accessible to the public.

A design or model has individual character if the general impression it engenders in informed users (usually, consumers) differs from the general impression engendered in those users by any design or model disclosed before the date of filing of the registration application.

Registering a design or model entitles the holder to the exclusive right to use it (fabrication, offer, marketing, importing, exporting) and to forbid third parties from using it without his consent.
These rights extend to any design or model which produces the same general impression in informed users.

A registration for design or model is to be considered valid until proven otherwise, which an interested third party may do at any time. >>>