Protecting aesthetic innovations? An exploration of the use of registered community designs

Rainer Filitz; Joachim Henkel; Bruce S. Tether

doi:10.1016/j.respol.2015.02.004

Protecting aesthetic innovations? An exploration of the use of registered community designs

Rainer Filitz, Joachim Henkel, Bruce S. Tether

Chair of Technology and Innovation Management

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

34 Scopus citations

Abstract

A decade after their introduction, approximately three-quarters of a million European registered community designs (RCDs) have been filed, and recent court cases suggest firms regard them as important for competition. This paper reviews design protection in the European Union, discusses this legal instrument to protect designs and design innovations, and provides an overview of how RCDs are used by firms from different countries and industries. To develop a more detailed understanding of their usage, we also report an exploratory qualitative study on the use of RCDs by German firms in three industries: footwear, car manufacturing and tool-making. This revealed some important differences, notably between judicious filing and "all-you-can-file" strategies, which implies that future research using this instrument requires attention be paid to firm and industry level behaviors. We develop a set of propositions, and set out a research agenda.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1192-1206
Number of pages	15
Journal	Research Policy
Volume	44
Issue number	6
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2015.02.004
State	Published - 1 Jul 2015

Keywords

Design rights
Innovation
Product design
Research agenda

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10.1016/j.respol.2015.02.004

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title = "Protecting aesthetic innovations? An exploration of the use of registered community designs",

abstract = "A decade after their introduction, approximately three-quarters of a million European registered community designs (RCDs) have been filed, and recent court cases suggest firms regard them as important for competition. This paper reviews design protection in the European Union, discusses this legal instrument to protect designs and design innovations, and provides an overview of how RCDs are used by firms from different countries and industries. To develop a more detailed understanding of their usage, we also report an exploratory qualitative study on the use of RCDs by German firms in three industries: footwear, car manufacturing and tool-making. This revealed some important differences, notably between judicious filing and {"}all-you-can-file{"} strategies, which implies that future research using this instrument requires attention be paid to firm and industry level behaviors. We develop a set of propositions, and set out a research agenda.",

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author = "Rainer Filitz and Joachim Henkel and Tether, {Bruce S.}",

note = "Funding Information: The authors are grateful to the bck GmbH, Munich, and the Office of Harmonization for the Internal Market, Alicante, for providing access to the database of registered community designs. Special thanks go to the interviewees for contributing their time and insights to this project. We are also grateful to the editor of Research Policy and three anonymous reviewers for helpful suggestions which have significantly improved the paper. We also gratefully acknowledge the funding from the European Community{\textquoteright}s Seventh Framework Programme under grant agreement CRE8TV.EU–320203 that has enabled us to undertake this research. The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors, and do not necessarily represent the views of any other person or organization.",

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Protecting aesthetic innovations? An exploration of the use of registered community designs

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Keywords

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