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Design Law – Protecting Industrial Designs.

A design is an industrial property right intended to protect the design, color and shape of a product. Protection can be obtained for both two-dimensional and three-dimensional visual appearances, and srch protection is acquired through application and registration and requires only that the design be novel and possess individual character.


In addition to national designs, which provide protective effect only within Germany, you may also register a design covering all EU Member States. Furthermore, there are unregistered designs, which come into existence automatically upon publication within the European Union. Finally, international designs can also be protected in other countries.


Acquiring a (registered) design grants the holder the exclusive right to use it and to prohibit third parties from using it in the respective country without their consent.

How can we help you with design matters?

Together with our clients, we develop strategies to optimally protect their intellectual property and handle the filing of design applications. In cases of unlawful use of our clients' designs, we swiftly enforce their claims for injunctive relief through warning letters and preliminary injunctions. This is the only way to ensure the effective and lasting protection of registered and unregistered designs.


Furthermore, our clients are typically entitled to monetary damages, which we, of course, also recover on their behalf, as well as a range of other claims, particularly the right to information regarding distribution channels, enabling us to take effective action against further design infringements.

Warning notice received due to design infringement?

If you have received a warning letter regarding an alleged infringement of a design, it is crucial to act quickly. Send your warning letter to our firm via email (without obligation) and we will review it to determine whether you are, in fact, infringing upon another party's design; we will also defend you against any unjustified claims. Maybe we are lready familiar with your opponent.


Should you have received a warning letter from us, we recommend that you seek the assistance of colleagues specializing in this field to ensure the matter is resolved as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Contact us

We offer initial consultations in design law at affordable and transparent fixed rates, which are credited against our fees should you decide to retain our services further.


Please feel free to contact us directly via email or telephone. We are available to answer any questions you may have regarding designs rights, and we look forward to advising you.

Attorney at law Andreas Erlenhardt, LL.M.

Bar-certified specialist attorney for intellectual property



We do business all over Germany. Our Düsseldorf office is located within the district of the Higher Regional Court (Oberlandesgericht) of Düsseldorf, to which the following communities belong: Hilden, Langenfeld, Meerbusch, Neuss, Krefeld, Kaarst, Ratingen, Mönchengladbach, Viersen, Kempen, Wuppertal, Erkrath, Haan, Remscheid, Mettmann, Solingen, Velbert, Oberhausen, Duisburg, Mülheim, Dinslaken and Kleve – we do not have offices in these cities but only in Düsseldorf. We have advised clients who are located in Berlin, Dortmund, Bremen, Köln, Dresden, Bochum, Bonn, Gelsenkirchen, Chemnitz, Kiel, Augsburg, Koblenz, Lübeck, Leverkusen, Oldenburg, Stuttgart, Osnabrück, Paderborn, Würzburg, Ulm, Offenbach, Bottrop, Hannover, Münster, Recklinghausen, Trier, Erlangen, Jena, Reutlingen, Nürnberg, Pforzheim, Göttingen, Heilbronn, Regensburg, Ingolstadt, Darmstadt, Heidelberg, Potsdam, Leipzig, Hamm, Kassel, Saarbrücken, Mainz, Freiburg, Aachen, Braunschweig, Wiesbaden, Karlsruhe, Mannheim, Bielefeld, Essen, Frankfurt and München.