Article 4

Conditions of Patentability of Industrial Designs

         1. An artistic, or both artistic and technical, solution that determines the outward appearance of a manufactured article shall constitute an industrial design eligible for legal protection under this Law if it is new and original. The manufactured article shall mean  any industrial or handicraft object.

         An industrial design shall be deemed new if the sum of its essential features was not known from information generally available in the world before the priority date of the design.

         When the novelty of an industrial design is determined, due regard shall be had to all applications for the protection of industrial designs that have been filed in the Republic of Belarus by other persons, that benefit from earlier priority and have not been withdrawn, and also industrial designs that have been patented in the Republic of Belarus.

         An industrial design shall be deemed original if its essential features determine the creativeness of the special aspects of the manufactured article.

         The essential features of an industrial design shall be construed as those features that determine the aesthetic and/or ergonomic aspects of the outward appearance of the article, its shape,  configuration, ornamentation or combination of colors.

         Disclosure of information concerning the industrial design shall not adversely affect its patentability  where it has the effect of making information on the subject matter of the industrial design generally accessible, where such disclosure is made by the applicant (or author) or by any other person who has obtained such information directly or indirectly from them and where such disclosure occurred during the 6 months preceding the filing of the application with the Patent Authority. The burden of proof of the foregoing shall be on the applicant.

2. Under the first paragraph of this Article, no legal protection shall be granted  to:

         - solutions that are determined exclusively by the technical function of an article;

         - solutions that are contrary to public interest, humanitarian principles or morality;

         - architectural works (with the exception of minor architectural forms) and industrial, hydraulic and other stationary structures;

         - printed matter as such;

         - subject matter of unstable shape consisting of liquid or gaseous   substances, powders or the like.

 Source: Law of the Republic of Belarus on Patents for Inventions, Utility Models and Industrial Designs

Entered into force on 16.12.2002, edition from 29.10.2004