Protection of Graphical User Interfaces as Registered Design Rights or Design Patents in Austria

• The costs of a single design starts at EUR 87.00 for paper applications or at EUR 82.00 for online applications.
• Multiple designs require an application fee of EUR 147.00 for paper applications or EUR 142 for online applications. A copy fee of EUR 20.00 is included for the first design. For each additional design, a copy fee of EUR 20 is charged, which is reduced to EUR 18.50 from the 11th design onwards.

Yes. A design can be protected for a maximum of 25 years. The protection must be renewed every five years by the payment of renewal fees consisting of EUR 130.00 in the case of a single design, and EUR 88.00 for each design in a multiple design.

Typically, one month.

In Austria, the grace period is twelve months. Disclosures that would otherwise destroy novelty - such as printed publications or exhibitions - do not affect the novelty to be assessed in a possible invalidity proceeding, provided they occurred within twelve months prior to the priority date and can be attributed to the designer or its legal successor.

Up to 18 months.

Both natural persons and legal entities can register a design and do not need to submit a PoA. If the applicant appoints a representative, who, however, is not a professional representative such as a patent attorney or law firm, the applicant must submit a PoA.

• If priority is claimed, the priority must be claimed within six months of the prior design application. Priority must be claimed along with the application and must include the date of the prior application, the application number (if known), as well as the country of the prior application.
• Upon request of the Austrian Patent Office (ÖPA) a priority document including a legally attested copy of the prior application and an officially certified translation can be required within a time limit set by the ÖPA. 

• Design applications are examined for their formalities. If they are not met, the applicant will be requested in written form to correct the application.
• There is also an examination of substantive requirements and rejection of the application in case of offence of common decency or public policy.

No, there are no prior art searches conducted by the examiners. Novelty, individuality or infringement of prior design rights are not subject to the application and examination procedure. Post grant, anyone may request the invalidation of the design if it later emerges that the required conditions for the design application were not met.

Priority claims are subject only to a formal examination, which verifies whether the priority was properly claimed within the six-month period and whether all required information has been submitted. No substantive assessment is conducted regarding whether the later design is identical or similar to the earlier design. In cases where the later design differs visually but may relate to the same subject matter, there are no specific administrative guidelines or procedures in place.

No.

There must be at least one (online or physical/paper) representation of the design provided, with a maximum of ten views allowed per design. All representations are included in the register, but only one – which is to be chosen by the applicant – is published in the Austrian Design Gazette. 

• In Austria, it is possible to represent animations or sequences by filing a series of static images of the relevant animation/sequence in the application. Video uploads or animations are not permitted.
• This said, the Directive (EU) 2024/2823 on the legal protection of designs, which needs to be implemented by the member states by December 9th, 2027, will open the possibility for designs to be represented in any forms of visual reproduction, which also could be dynamic or animated, including videos or computer modelling.

No. Additional elements to the visual representation of a design such as disclaimers, numbers or arrows, which are not themselves part of the design, are not permitted.

The design must be represented with as little additional features as possible. Representations can consist of photographs or drawings and can be presented in black and white or in colour. The representation must not be bigger than the format A4 and must be one-sided. Technical drawings are permitted. It is important that one version of representation is chosen (e.g. photographs in colour and drawings in black and white cannot be used simultaneously.)

• The GUI, as well as its single individual parts, can be subject to copyright protection if it is considered a unique intellectual creation of its author. The graphic and interactive design of a GUI can as a whole be protected as work of applied arts.
• The single elements used in the GUI (texts, photographs, graphics) can also be protected by the registration of national trademarks.

Generally, these other IP rights co-exist with the design rights. The biggest difference and benefit of multiple intellectual property rights is the duration of protection. The creator of a GUI that qualifies as a work of authorship and is thus protected under copyright, benefits of the lifetime protection of its GUI, which extends to 70 years after his/her death. Furthermore, trademarks are protected indefinitely if they are renewed. Design protection, on the contrary, is limited to a maximum duration of 25 years.

• As GUIs are often animated and contain interactive elements, their representation during the application procedure can be a challenge. Not only is there a limit of 10 representations for one design, but the representations must be uniform (e.g. all in colour or all black and white) and cannot include descriptions, disclaimers or other additional written information to determine the scope the GUI (e.g. its movements or functioning) adequately. Because of this, it may be necessary to file multiple design applications to protect the entire GUI. It is also important to find a form of representation that suits the design best. Portraying the entire design adequately can be a challenge. 
• As there is no examination of the GUI concerning its novelty or individuality during the application process, a too broad design of the GUI can lead to design infringements and the design may become subject to invalidity claims.

• Defining the scope of the GUI in advance and deciding on a unitary form of its representation that respects the limit of 10 representations. An emphasis should be placed on the most valuable elements of the design as well as on the elements which constitute the essence of the GUI.
• Describing the GUI (no technical descriptions!) to clarify the design.
• As with all Austrian registered design applications, professional legal advice is recommended, particularly in the context of the representation of a GUI.

International designs can be registered with WIPO under the Hague Agreement, which currently has 62 contracting parties. However, Austria is not a contracting party to the Hague Agreement. Due to the connection between the EU Design system administered by the EUIPO and the Hague Agreement, Austrian applicants can access the Hague system via a EU design registration and obtain protection in other contracting countries. However, filing under the Hague Agreement based on an Austrian design right is not possible.

In October 2024, the Council of the EU adopted the Design Legislative Reform package, with the Regulation (EU) 2024/2822 amending Council Regulation (EC) No 6/2002 on Community designs and repealing Commission Regulation (EC) No 2246/2002 entering into force partly on May 1, 2025, in full from July 1, 2026, and the Directive (EU) 2024/2823 on the legal protection of designs, which must be implemented by Member States by December 9, 2027. 

The EU design protection landscape will reflect new technologies, the ‘design’ and ‘product’ definitions will become broader (‘design’ explicitly including animations, motions and transitions) and design protection becoming available also for non-physical products, such as ‘graphic user interfaces’, which are specifically mentioned in the new Regulation. The new legislation also opens a possibility for designs to be represented in any form of visual reproduction, which could be static, dynamic or animated, including drawings, photographs, videos, computer imaging or computer modelling.