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Design: can I register the look of my product?
Design registration protects how a product looks, not how it works. It must be new, and it is lost if you show or sell the design before filing.
A confidential disclosure is generally not a publication - but file soon.
Moderate complexity - several routes or missing facts
- Section 16: disclosure in circumstances where it would be contrary to good faith for the recipient to use or publish the design does not invalidate a later registration.
- Keep written NDAs and records of who saw the design.
- File before any public launch, trade show or online listing.
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Not sure whether this applies to your invention?
The honest answer usually needs someone to look at your actual disclosure, your timeline and the prior art. That is a conversation, not an article.