Title: Community design registration and EU enlargement: case of Slovenia

Authors: Zdenka Zenko, Jure Marn

Addresses: University of Maribor, Faculty of Economics and Business, Razlagova 14, 2000 Maribor, Slovenia. ' University of Maribor, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Smetanova 17, 2000 Maribor, Slovenia

Abstract: Following the accession of new member states into the EU, all Community designs will become automatically valid in these countries. This contribution attempts to clarify some changes the new member states designers will face because of that. While all new member states (except for Poland) are small and relatively poor, the authors decided to present their findings on the case of Slovenia. First, analysis of all publicly traded corporations at Ljubljana stock exchange (129) is given regarding their industrial design rights. This is compared to industrial design rights by all holders with either residence or incorporation in Slovenia. Then, systems for protecting industrial designs in Slovenia are presented, and pitfalls, and advantages of Community design registration are discussed. The final conclusion of the authors is that CDR will bring several new features to Slovenia, but the public should not be disillusioned by the EU generosity: there was none.

Keywords: innovation; learning; industrial designs; industrial property; Community design registration; innovation management; EU enlargement; Slovenia; European Union; industrial design rights; industrial design protection.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIL.2005.006372

International Journal of Innovation and Learning, 2005 Vol.2 No.3, pp.303 - 318

Published online: 24 Feb 2005 *

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