What can be protected?
An industrial design in Kosovo is the outer appearance of the whole or a part of a product, resulting from features such as shape, form, color, lines, contours, texture, or materials of the product or its ornamentation.
Products include industrial and handicraft items, parts intended to be assembled into a complex product, packaging, graphic symbols, and typefaces, but not computer programs.
Elements not eligible for protection
Design protection does not extend to features dictated solely by technical function or to features that must be reproduced in their exact form and dimensions to allow mechanical connection or assembly with other products, except in limited modular system situations.
Designs contrary to public order or morality, or involving unauthorized use of state emblems and protected signs, are also excluded.
Registrability requirements (novelty and individual character)
A design must be new and have individual character, meaning it produces a different overall impression on the informed user, taking into account the designer’s freedom.
Disclosure by the designer or successor within 12 months prior to filing may be disregarded under grace period rules, provided legal conditions are met.
Filing, priority, and language
Applications are filed with the Industrial Property Agency. Multiple designs may be included in a single application if they fall within the same Locarno class.
Paris Convention priority may be claimed within 6 months, and applications must be submitted in Albanian or Serbian, with translations required where necessary.
Term and renewals
Upon registration, a design is protected for an initial period of 5 years from the filing date and may be renewed for successive 5 year periods up to a maximum of 25 years.
Renewal requires timely payment of fees; failure to pay results in lapse of the design right.
Typical required filing documents (industrial design)