ABSTRACT
Design protection causes perhaps the greatest area of difficulty for the integration and rationalisation of Community intellectual property rights. The Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property 1883 does require that industrial design shall be protected in all countries of the Union, but contains no requirements as to substantial rights. The obstacles in the way of successful harmonisation and integration of design right within the European Community are thus immense. However, the mere difficulties cannot be allowed to prevent the issues being addressed. The history of the Community's approach to design protection in many ways mirrors its increasing realisation of the difficulties involved. If there is to be a Community wide design right an obvious issue which arises is whether there remains any real need for national design protection at all. There is again now a subtle difference between the Directive and the Regulation in dealing with the issues of public policy and morality.
