If you are unsure about any parts of the application process, please ring us before you file your application. You can ring +47 22 38 76 44. You will also find complete notes together with the application form in Altinn.

Design should be fully developed

After filing your application with us, you can not make any changes that affect the design's overall look. You should therefore postpone filing your application until your design is finished.

How the images should be shown (PDF)

Images of the design

You can include up to seven images of the design in your application. The images included define what protection your registration refers to. It is therefore very important that you submit good, clear images of the design. Guidelines for your images:

• Use line drawings, photographs or data drawings.
• Line drawings must be drawn with clear, smooth, black lines. We do not accept sketches.
• Photos must not contain technical guidelines, such as explanatory arrows, text or measurements.
• If you wish to protect only one side or part of a product, the images should show only this side or section. If you wish to protect all angles of a product, you must submit images of all sides.
• Elements that are not part of the design must not show in the pictures. For example, if you wish to register a bookshelf, there must be no books in it.
• If you need to support an object in order to photograph it, you must do it in such a way that the support does not appear in the picture. If you apply for registration of a garment, the images must not show the person wearing the coat.
• The design must be shown against a neutral background. For example if you are taking photographs of a table, try to place the table against a plain, neutral wall. Make sure there are no distracting elements in the background.
• If you want to show that part of the product is not to be included in the registration, you can outline this section with dotted lines. For example, If you wish to protect only the handle of a cup, you can draw the handle with solid lines, and the cup with dotted lines. In this case only the handle will be protected.

Colour or black and white

If you register your design in black and white, you have not limited protection to one particular colour. Most people choose to register their design in black and white in order to get a broader protection. However if colour is an important part of the design, it may be wise to protect it in colour. In this case you must submit colour photos. The same product can aslo be registered in both monochrome and colour. This will be two designs.

Product specification

Give a short and simple description of what type of product the design refers to. It may be "chair", "ship", "graphic symbol" and so on. You must not describe the appearance of the design or how it is made. If there is no term for the product, please write a brief explanation of what function the product fills. The purpose of the product specification is for us to decide which class the design belongs to.

Classification

NIPO places all designs in different classes according to the type of product shown in the images included in the application. We call this the "Locarno Classification" (link to WIPO webiste). This is an international system for classifying designs into classes. If you know what class your design belongs to, you can write this in the application form. If you do not know this, you can leave this field empty. If you write in the wrong class, we will fix this for you. The class involves no limitation of the scope of the registration, it is only an administrative tool to organize our registers.

• Locarno Classification: main page
• Locarno Classification: List of goods

More designs in the same application

You may file multiple designs in the same application if all the designs are in the same class, that is if they belong to the same product category. For example, if the design protection is for a table, a chair and a bed, then you can file all the designs in the same application because they all belong to the furniture class. The benefit of filing multiple designs in the same application, is that it will be cheaper than filing each design in separate applications.

Secrecy

You can ask us keep the pictures of the design in the application secret for a maximum of six months from the day you filed your application the first time, either in Norway or in another country. One reason to keep a design secret may be that you are not sure whether the design is fully developed. As long as the design is secret, you have the opportunity to withdraw the application and avoid the design becoming public. In this way, the old design will not spoil the novelty requirement for a new application of a similar design.

Duration

Your design registration is valid for one or more periods of five years from the date of filing of the application, up to a total term of 25 years. When a five-year period approaches expiry, we will send you a notification that it is time to renew your registration. Then you can assess whether you want to pay to maintain the registration or not.

Supplementary examination

You can mark in the application form for supplementary examination. We then carry out a search in our database to determine whether or not there are any previous designs with a similar appearance, which can be an obstacle to a valid registration of your design. We charge a fee for this service, and you will receive a report with the results of the examination.

Language and format requirements

The application form must be filled out in Norwegian. Other documents that you may attach, can be in Swedish, Danish or English.

Choose a recommended format for your documents to make sure NIPO is able to open them.

More information on recommended file types (PDF)