Design Registration – YSL Wins Over H&M

Design registraion is an important way in which to protect the unique shapes or surface designs that a company’s designers produce. Generally, there is no requirement to prove novelty in order to register a design. It is only when you want to rely on your design registration that it is relevant to prove novelty.So, the recent decision where Yves Saint Laurent (YSL) claimed victory over H&M because it indicates that it is not necessary for designers to come up with something radically different to what is on the market to qualify for design protection.

Overall Individual Character Wins

Last week the luxury fashion house YSL emerged victorious from a nine-year legal battle with the high-street retailer H&M over the validity of its two EU registered designs for its handbags.

H&M challenged the two registered designs, pointing to previous designs as evidence that the YSL designs lacked the required “individual character” to qualify for valid design protection. However, on the 10 September, the European General Court confirmed the previous decisions made by the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM) that YSL’s handbag designs had key differences from what H&M had cited as evidence. In passing the judgment the court held: “it must be held that the differences between the designs at issue are significant and that similarities between them are insignificant in the overall impression which they produce”. For a full summary of the judgment, see the official press release by the General Court of the European Union here.

YSL’s design:

H&M’s evidence of prior design: