A person who has duly filed an application for a design
right or for a utility model in or for any State party to the Paris
Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, or to the
Agreement establishing the World Trade Organisation, or his
successors in title, shall enjoy, for the purpose of filing an
application for a registered Community design in respect of the
same design or utility model, a right of priority of six months
from the date of filing of the first application.
Every filing that is equivalent to a regular national filing
under the national law of the State where it was made or under
bilateral or multilateral agreements shall be recognised as
giving rise to a right of priority.
‘Regular national filing’ means any filing that is sufficient
to establish the date on which the application was filed, what
ever may be the outcome of the application.
A subsequent application for a design which was the
subject of a previous first application, and which is filed in or
in respect of the same State, shall be considered as the first
application for the purpose of determining priority, provided
that, at the date of the filing of the subsequent application, the
previous application has been withdrawn, abandoned or
refused without being open to public inspection and without
leaving any rights outstanding, and has not served as a basis for
claiming priority. The previous application may not thereafter
serve as a basis for claiming a right of priority.
If the first filing has been made in a State which is not a
party to the Paris Convention, or to the Agreement establishing
the World Trade Organisation, paragraphs 1 to 4 shall apply
only in so far as that State, according to published findings,
grants, on the basis of a filing made at the Office and subject to
conditions equivalent to those laid down in this Regulation, a
right of priority having equivalent effect.