Designs are protected only in the countries in which they are registered. To protect your designs abroad, you ought to make design registration applications to the countries in your mind. On the other hand, to apply in multiple countries at the same time, you can apply to the systems of these countries, and prevent extra time and costs.
Design registration application systems abroad;
Territorial application
Means that you apply for the design to the official authority of that country via an attorney located in the country.
WIPO - The Hauge system concerning the international design registration applications
• It is carried out by the World Intellectual Property Rights Organization (WIPO) based in Switzerland.
• It is operational in 91 different countries including the OAPI countries and the EU Member States, and a useful application system allowing up to 100 designs.
• At the beginning, international registration offers 5 years of protection time. There are renewals available at least once in the signatory countries of the Hague Agreement (1960), and at least twice in the signatory countries of the Geneva Convention. If the country's law allows, it is possible to have more renewals as well.
EUIPO (The European Union Intellectual Property Rights Office) community design application
• It is carried out by the European Union Intellectual Property Rights Office (EUIPO) located in Spain
• It covers the Member States (28 countries in total) (Turkey is not a member of this system because it is not a member state)
• A design registration valid in all Member States with one application
• Registration time is approximately 2 weeks, and no novelty examination by the Official Authority.
• Protection time is approximately five years effective from the date of the application. This time-frame can be extended up to a total of twenty-five years of means of being renewed every five years.
OAPI - African Intellectual Property Rights Organization
• OAPI is a community of 17 French-speaking African countries, of which members are Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Togo, and Comoros.
• A design registration is valid in all member countries (17 African countries) with one application.
• Protection time is approximately 5 years, and this time-frame can be extended up to a total of 15 years of means of being renewed every five years.
ARIPO - The African Regional Intellectual Property Rights Organization
• It is a registration system that has 10 African member countries as part of design applications.
Botswana, Eswatini (formerly known as Swaziland), The Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, São Tomé & Principe, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe
• The protection period is 10 years by means of the payments for the fees.