How to Register a Design in France with INPI: A Practical Guide for Foreign Businesses

Registering a design in France protects the appearance of a product: its shape, contours, lines, colours, texture, materials, or ornamentation. The national right is the registered dessin ou modele (French for "design or model", the registered industrial design), granted by INPI, the Institut National de la Propriete Industrielle, France's national IP office. Mechanically the process is light, because INPI does not examine your design for novelty before it registers. The complications for foreign businesses sit elsewhere: disclosure timing can quietly undo your right, a registration certificate is not proof that the design is actually new, foreign applicants without a presence in France or the EU and EEA generally need a local representative, and, most importantly, the national route is only one of several ways to protect a design that takes effect in France. Getting the relationship between the national, EU, and international routes right is the decision that matters most. This guide walks through the national INPI process and explains where the real risks sit. Our France designs overview sits above this guide.

The national right is one of several routes

Before filing anything, internalise that a design taking effect in France can be obtained by more than one route, run by different offices, and they are easy to conflate.

The national registered design is filed with INPI and protects the design in France only. This is the route this guide is about, and it suits a business whose interest is squarely French.

A Registered EU Design, filed with the EUIPO (the European Union Intellectual Property Office, an EU agency, not a French office), takes effect across all EU member states at once, France included, from a single filing. For many businesses with a European footprint this is the more efficient choice, because one filing covers France alongside every other member state. The EU design regime has recently been reformed, which has changed terminology, fees, and some procedure, so confirm the current position with the EUIPO. The key point to avoid conflating: the EUIPO is an EU institution and is wholly separate from INPI, just as the EU's patent arrangements (the European Patent Office, and the Unitary Patent and the Unified Patent Court) are separate again and concern patents, not designs.

An international design registration through the Hague System, administered by WIPO, lets you designate France, the EU, or both, alongside other member territories from a single international application. This is the route to consider when France is one part of a wider multi-country programme.

The practical upshot is that you rarely file a French national design in isolation without first asking whether a Registered EU Design or a Hague designation would cover France more efficiently. That is a question to put to local counsel early.

What qualifies, and who can apply

A design is registrable broadly where it is new and has individual character, meaning it produces a different overall impression on the informed user compared with designs already made available to the public. As between competing applicants, French and EU design law operates on a first-to-file basis, so priority of filing governs, which is one reason filing early matters in law and not only as prudence. The precise tests are matters of law to confirm with INPI or counsel. A registered design protects appearance, not technical function (which may be a matter for a patent or a utility certificate, the certificat d'utilite) and not a brand name or logo as such (which is the territory of trade marks).

A point particular to France is worth flagging. France has a strong droit d'auteur (authors' rights) tradition, and an original design may attract copyright protection automatically and in parallel with a registration, under the principle that protection can cumulate. French copyright carries moral rights (droit moral) that are, as a matter of French law, perpetual, inalienable, and incapable of being waived or transferred away, which is a meaningful difference from many common-law systems and matters when you are commissioning or acquiring design work. How registered design protection and copyright interact on your specific facts is a question for local counsel.

There is no nationality or residence requirement to own a French registered design, and no need for a business presence in France before filing. The practical constraint for foreign applicants is representation. An applicant with no establishment in the EU or EEA generally must appoint a representative entitled to act before INPI, who also serves as the address for service in proceedings. Since Brexit, UK-based applicants without such an establishment fall on the foreign side of that line and so generally need a representative for the national route. The precise territorial threshold, and which acts can be performed unrepresented, should be confirmed with INPI or local counsel, and proceedings are conducted in French, so a local representative is the normal route in practice. Factor representation into your timeline and budget from the outset.

Novelty, disclosure, and the value of filing first

This is the point that catches out foreign businesses most often. Novelty is judged by reference to the position before your filing date (or, where you validly claim Convention priority, the priority date), and a disclosure before that cut-off can destroy it. If you launch the product, show it at a trade fair, publish images online, or otherwise make the design public before you file, you may have undermined your own right, even though INPI will still register it without checking.

French and EU design law does, as a general rule, provide a grace period, a limited look-back window measured back from the filing or priority date, within which a disclosure made by the designer (or by a third party with the designer's consent, or in consequence of information the designer provided) is disregarded for novelty purposes. It does not cover independent third-party disclosures, so it protects only your own or consented disclosures. Treat this as a fallback, not a plan. The length of that window and the conditions attached to it are version-specific, so do not rely on any figure here; confirm the current period and conditions with INPI or local counsel before assuming you are still in time. A grace period in one country also offers no protection in countries that do not recognise an equivalent, which matters if France is one part of an international programme. The conservative and far safer approach is straightforward: file first, disclose afterwards.

No substantive novelty examination before registration

INPI checks that the application is formally complete and that the subject matter qualifies as a design and is not contrary to public policy or accepted principles of morality. It does not examine your design for novelty or individual character before registering it. That makes registration quick, but it also means the registration certificate is not a finding that your design is actually new.

Validity is tested only later, if and when someone challenges the right, whether through proceedings before INPI or in the courts, or as a defence or counterclaim in an infringement action. The practical implication is significant: the speed and ease of registration are not a measure of strength. Your design is registered without anyone having verified its novelty, and that question can be reopened by a challenger years later. This is precisely why clearance and disclosure discipline before filing matter so much. Because there is no official novelty search, prior designs made available to the public can be cited against you later, so a pre-filing search across registered designs and the wider market is a sensible risk assessment even though it is not required.

Representations and the application

A French design application identifies the applicant, includes a representation of the design (the views or images that define what is protected), and indicates the products to which the design will be applied, generally using the Locarno Classification (the international classification for industrial designs). As a general rule the product indication is for administrative and search purposes and does not, in itself, limit the scope of protection, which is defined by the representations, though the precise position on scope is a matter to confirm with INPI or local counsel. The quality of those representations therefore matters enormously, because weak or inconsistent views can narrow or hollow out the right. France allows multiple designs to be combined in a single multiple application, which can be cost-efficient for a product range, and you can usually request that publication be deferred for a period where you want protection on file but are not ready to reveal the design publicly. The maximum deferment length is version-specific, so confirm it with INPI.

Registration, term, and maintenance

If the formalities are in order, the design registers and is published unless deferment has been requested. A French registered design is granted for an initial period and can be maintained in further periods up to an overall maximum term, after which it cannot be extended. Maintenance is by payment of renewal fees at defined intervals; both the length of each period and the overall ceiling are set by law and can change, so rather than relying on any number here, confirm the current term, the renewal intervals, and the maximum overall duration with INPI. There is usually a defined window in the run-up to each renewal and, often, a further period afterwards during which late renewal may still be possible against an additional fee, though you should confirm whether and for how long this applies. Missing a renewal risks loss of the registration, so diarise the dates well ahead.

On fees generally, official fees apply; confirm the current amount with INPI (or the EUIPO or WIPO as relevant) or local counsel, since the figures change and depend on the number of designs, deferment, and renewals. The practical cost drivers to budget for are the official filing and renewal fees, the cost of preparing high-quality representations, professional fees for a local representative, and any translation work.

Choosing between the INPI, EUIPO, and Hague routes

The choice of route is the strategic heart of the decision. A national INPI filing protects France only and can be the right answer where your commercial interest is purely French. A Registered EU Design at the EUIPO covers France alongside the rest of the EU from one filing and is usually more efficient once you care about more than one member state. A Hague designation through WIPO lets you reach France, the EU, or both within a single international application spanning several territories, which suits a broad multi-country programme and centralises renewals.

A Hague designation does not switch off the receiving office's rules: a designation of France is handled under INPI practice and a designation of the EU under EUIPO practice, and the same discipline about novelty and pre-filing disclosure applies regardless of route. For the wider mechanics of international design filing, see our guide to the Hague System. Whether a national French filing, a Registered EU Design, or a Hague designation suits you best depends on how many countries you are targeting, your budget, and how you want to manage the portfolio, which is a sensible point to put to counsel.

A note on getting this right

Design registration in France rewards careful sequencing. Confirm novelty and individual character first, then prepare clear representations, file before any disclosure, appoint your representative, and decide deliberately between the national, EU, and Hague routes. Keep in mind too that an original design may enjoy copyright in parallel, with moral rights that French law treats as perpetual and inalienable. Because INPI does not examine novelty before registration, and because the details on grace periods, terms, and renewals change over time, the points flagged above really should be checked against current guidance before you act.

IPEnvoy is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice; this is general information only. Always confirm the current position with INPI's official website and a qualified French IP professional (or the EUIPO or WIPO as relevant) before you file.