An industrial design is the ornamental or aesthetic aspect of an article. The design may consist of three dimensional features, such as the shape of the surface of an article, or two-dimensional features, such as patterns, lines or color.
Industrial designs are applied to the wide variety of products of industry and handicraft from technical, medical instruments to watches, jewellery, and other luxury items; from house ware and electrical appliances to vehicles and architectural structures.

To be protected under the national law, an industrial design must appeal to the eye. This means that an industrial design is primarily of an aesthetic nature, and does not protected any technical features of the article to be applied.

Why protect industrial design?

Industrial design is what makes an article attractive and appealing; hence, they add to the commercial value of the product and increase its marketability. When a design is protected the owner is assured an exclusive right against unauthorized copying or imitation of the design by the third parties. This helps to ensure a fair return on investment

An effective system of protection also benefits consumer and the public at large, by promoting fair competition and honest trade practices, encouraging creativity and promoting more aesthetically attractive product. Protecting industrial designs helps economic development, by encouraging activity in the industrial and manufacturing sectors, as well in traditional arts and crafts. They contribute to the expansion of commercial activities and the export of national products. Industrial designs can relatively be simple and inexpensive to develop and protect. They are reasonably accessible to small and medium-size enterprises as well as to individual artists and craftsmen, in both industrialized and developing countries.

How can industrial design be protected?

In most countries, an industrial design must be registered in order to be protected under industrial design law. As a general rule, to be registerable, the design must be "new" or "original". Different countries have varying definitions of such terms as well as variations in the registration process itself. Generally, "new" means that no identical or very similar design is known to have existed before.

Once a design is registered, a registration certificate is issued. The term of protection is generally five years, with possibility of further periods of renewal up to, in most cases, 15 years. Depending on the particular national law and the kind of design, an industrial design may also be protected as a work of art under copy right law. In some countries, industrial design and copyright protection can exist concurrently.

In other countries, they are mutually exclusive: once the owner chooses one kind of protection, he can no longer invoke the other. Under certain circumstances an industrial design may also be protected under unfair competition law , although the conditions of protection and rights and remedies ensuing can be significantly different.

How extensive is industrial design protected?

Generally, industrial design protection is limited to the country in which protection is granted. Under the Hague Agreement Concerning the International Deposit of Industrial Designs, a WIPO-administered treaty, a procedure for an international registration is offered.