What is the right conferred by the unregistered design?
The UCD provides industrial designs with an immediate and automatic protection against copying for a period of 3 years from the date on which the design was first
made available to the public within the EU (provided this took place on/or after 6 March 2002). A design is made available to the public when it has been, for example, published, exhibited or traded. The disclosure to the public also implies that those working in the same sector and operating within the Community could be reasonably considered to be aware of the design.
See REG 6/2002
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32002R0006:EN:HTML

What is the essence of the unregistered Community design?
The UCD confers upon a designer the right for designs to be protected without any costly and time-consuming registration formalities.

What are the protection requirements?
To be granted the Community design protection, the design must be new and have an individual character.
A design is new if no identical design has previously been made available to the public.
A design has individual character if the "overall impression it produces on the informed user differs from the overall impression produced on such a user by any
design which has been made available to the public".

Do you need to apply for an unregistered design?
The unregistered Community design right came into force on 6 March 2002. This means that all new designs disclosed to the public within the European Community
after this date are automatically and immediately protected throughout the European Union. In other words, there is no application procedure as far as unregistered
designs are concerned.

Who decides in case of dispute?
Each EU Member State must designate Community Design Courts in its territory.
Until this has been carried out, jurisdiction lies with the court of that State, which would have jurisdiction regarding national designs.
As a rule, proceedings will take place in the Member State in which the defendant is domiciled or has an establishment. Thus, the decision will take effect in all Member States.
Infringement proceedings may also be brought in the Member State, in which the infringement has been committed. But in this case the decision on infringement will
only take effect in that State.
All decisions on invalidity will take effect in all Member States.

What are the concrete implications of the unregistered design for our members?
The UCD particularly suits the needs of the toy industry which produces large numbers of short-lived designs over short periods of time. Indeed, the UCD provides
industrial creation with an automatic protection against copying without any costly and time-consuming registration formalities.
Bearing in mind the above information and especially the disclosure rules, some contracts might need to be revised to avoid any disclosure of designs without the
consent of the design holder.

Where to find more information?
Full text of Regulation in all EU languages.
Please find below the link to the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market whose task is to register Community trade marks and, in the near future, designs:
http://oami.eu.int/en/design/default.htm

For further Unregistered Community Designs
The Unregistered Community Design
An unregistered Community design (UCD) is defined by the Community Design Regulation in the same way as the registered Community design (RCD) but is given protection for a period of three years from the date on which the design was first made available to the public within the territory of the European Union. An UCD confers on its holder a right to prevent copying. RCDs and UCDs have to meet the same conditions to be protected.
Unlike a registered Community design, you do not have to file an application to protect an unregistered design. In practice, the holder of a UCD may encounter serious problems proving the date of disclosure and therefore that protection exists.
Scope of protection
The territorial scope of protection of an RCD and a UCD is the same. Both have unitary character throughout the European Union and share the requirements for protection such as novelty and individual character. The rights conferred, however, differ because the RCD gives an exclusive right to use and to prevent the making, offering, putting on the market, importing, exporting, using or stocking for such purposes of products incorporating the design, which do not produce a different overall impression.
The UCD constitutes a right to prevent the commercial use of the design only if the use results from copying. Consequently, if the design has been created independently by a second designer (in other words, that designer shows that he/she was not aware of the existence of the protected design), there is no infringement.

Within the first 12 months following disclosure of your design, you may still apply for a registered Community design to increase the level of your protection.