Collapse to view only § 1332. No retroactive effect
- § 1301. Designs protected
- § 1302. Designs not subject to protection
- § 1303. Revisions, adaptations, and rearrangements
- § 1304. Commencement of protection
- § 1305. Term of protection
- § 1306. Design notice
- § 1307. Effect of omission of notice
- § 1308. Exclusive rights
- § 1309. Infringement
- § 1310. Application for registration
- § 1311. Benefit of earlier filing date in foreign country
- § 1312. Oaths and acknowledgments
- § 1313. Examination of application and issue or refusal of registration
- § 1314. Certification of registration
- § 1315. Publication of announcements and indexes
- § 1316. Fees
- § 1317. Regulations
- § 1318. Copies of records
- § 1319. Correction of errors in certificates
- § 1320. Ownership and transfer
- § 1321. Remedy for infringement
- § 1322. Injunctions
- § 1323. Recovery for infringement
- § 1324. Power of court over registration
- § 1325. Liability for action on registration fraudulently obtained
- § 1326. Penalty for false marking
- § 1327. Penalty for false representation
- § 1328. Enforcement by Treasury and Postal Service
- § 1329. Relation to design patent law
- § 1330. Common law and other rights unaffected
- § 1331. Administrator; Office of the Administrator
- § 1332. No retroactive effect
Protection for a design under this chapter shall be available notwithstanding the employment in the design of subject matter excluded from protection under section 1302 if the design is a substantial revision, adaptation, or rearrangement of such subject matter. Such protection shall be independent of any subsisting protection in subject matter employed in the design, and shall not be construed as securing any right to subject matter excluded from protection under this chapter or as extending any subsisting protection under this chapter.
The protection provided for a design under this chapter shall commence upon the earlier of the date of publication of the registration under section 1313(a) or the date the design is first made public as defined by section 1310(b).
An application for registration of a design filed in the United States by any person who has, or whose legal representative or predecessor or successor in title has, previously filed an application for registration of the same design in a foreign country which extends to designs of owners who are citizens of the United States, or to applications filed under this chapter, similar protection to that provided under this chapter shall have that same effect as if filed in the United States on the date on which the application was first filed in such foreign country, if the application in the United States is filed within 6 months after the earliest date on which any such foreign application was filed.
Certificates of registration shall be issued in the name of the United States under the seal of the Office of the Administrator and shall be recorded in the official records of the Office. The certificate shall state the name of the useful article, the date of filing of the application, the date of registration, and the date the design was made public, if earlier than the date of filing of the application, and shall contain a reproduction of the drawing or other pictorial representation of the design. If a description of the salient features of the design appears in the application, the description shall also appear in the certificate. A certificate of registration shall be admitted in any court as prima facie evidence of the facts stated in the certificate.
The Administrator shall by regulation set reasonable fees for the filing of applications to register designs under this chapter and for other services relating to the administration of this chapter, taking into consideration the cost of providing these services and the benefit of a public record.
The Administrator may establish regulations for the administration of this chapter.
Upon payment of the prescribed fee, any person may obtain a certified copy of any official record of the Office of the Administrator that relates to this chapter. That copy shall be admissible in evidence with the same effect as the original.
The Administrator may, by a certificate of correction under seal, correct any error in a registration incurred through the fault of the Office, or, upon payment of the required fee, any error of a clerical or typographical nature occurring in good faith but not through the fault of the Office. Such registration, together with the certificate, shall thereafter have the same effect as if it had been originally issued in such corrected form.
In any action involving the protection of a design under this chapter, the court, when appropriate, may order registration of a design under this chapter or the cancellation of such a registration. Any such order shall be certified by the court to the Administrator, who shall make an appropriate entry upon the record.
Any person who brings an action for infringement knowing that registration of the design was obtained by a false or fraudulent representation materially affecting the rights under this chapter, shall be liable in the sum of $10,000, or such part of that amount as the court may determine. That amount shall be to compensate the defendant and shall be charged against the plaintiff and paid to the defendant, in addition to such costs and attorney’s fees of the defendant as may be assessed by the court.
Whoever knowingly makes a false representation materially affecting the rights obtainable under this chapter for the purpose of obtaining registration of a design under this chapter shall pay a penalty of not less than $500 and not more than $1,000, and any rights or privileges that individual may have in the design under this chapter shall be forfeited.
The issuance of a design patent under title 35, United States Code, for an original design for an article of manufacture shall terminate any protection of the original design under this chapter.
In this chapter, the “Administrator” is the Register of Copyrights, and the “Office of the Administrator” and the “Office” refer to the Copyright Office of the Library of Congress.
Protection under this chapter shall not be available for any design that has been made public under section 1310(b) before the effective date of this chapter.