Good design can increase your product's reach in the marketplace and make it more attractive to customers. This is because the aesthetic power of design permeates many aspects of your lives and is applied to a wide variety of products: from packaging to books and magazines, electrical goods, electronics, jewellery, foodstuffs and textiles.

A novel design is one of the key factors that attract us to a product and in the end leads us to prefer one product to another. It therefore goes without saying that design is one of the most important aspects in selling the product, improving it and getting a return on your investment. Developing a new design requires investing both time and money so it is important that you protect the design against anyone else copying it.

Because a design is considered an important and valuable business asset it can be traded or used as collateral, it rewards your creative effort and acts as your signature. Design registration gives you, as the owner, the exclusive right to exploit that design in Malta and Europe. As the owner of a registered design you have the right to prevent third parties from making, selling, importing, exporting or using articles in which the design is incorporated or to which it is applied.

Obtaining protection of your design is a practical way to define and protect your innovation. You can submit an application for the protection of your design in Malta on www.ips.gov.mt.

For further information on how to protect and register your design in Malta, visit the Industrial Property Registrations Directorate (IPRD) section on the Commerce Department website at www.commerce.gov.mt or speak to Business 1st.

Should you be interested in protecting and registering your design in the European Union, you may visit the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) at www.euipo.europe.eu

Protecting and registering your design is an important factor towards making your business successful.