Starting from January 1, 2024, the State Agency on Intellectual Property (AGEPI) uses in the substantive examination of applications for registration of industrial designs received via national and international procedures the image search technology in the DesignView Database with reference to Community applications for registration of industrial designs submitted to the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO).

EUIPO incorporated the image search technology into the DesignView Database on June 30, 2023, initially focusing on images from industrial design registration applications received by the European Union Intellectual Property Office. This technology was expected to be extended later for the information presented in DesignView by all intellectual property offices in the European Union, according to the announcement available at: https://www.euipo.europa.eu/ro/news/euipo-in-house-image-search-added-to-designview.

This improvement is set to bolster efficiency and reduce expenses for the participating IP offices. Also, this new feature is part of the EUIPO’s digital transformation programme in line with the EUIPO’s Strategic Plan 2025.

DesignView is the world’s largest free, online design database and is now even easier to use.

The new image search function in DesignView can be tested at: https://www.tmdn.org/tmdsview-web/#/dsview .