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Ceramics
Ceramics, surfaces and industrial processes
Discover the area →Areas of protection · Design
Design. Protect industry assets.
Product, shapes and visual identity. Design connects creativity, function and recognisability. Furniture, lighting, packaging and objects can express a visual value that deserves its own strategy, coordinated with trademarks, any technical innovations and relationships between author and enterprise.
The strategy starts from the project.
The first question is what version of the product you want to protect and who owns the rights. Prototypes, renderings and variants can evolve quickly: an ordered collection avoids confusing the initial project with what is actually put on the market.
What assets to consider.
Appearance of the product
Shape, lines, ornamentation and visual configuration require representations that can clearly describe what distinguishes the product.
Brand and collection
The name of the designer, the trademark of the company and the name of the collection can have different roles in communication and distribution.
Project and documentation
Creative files, drawings, photographs and contracts help to rebuild origin, contributions and permissions to exploit.
The passage to be guarded
A creative commission should not leave implicit ownership, permitted use and possibility to change the project. The conditions with freelancers, studies and producers must be read together with the dates of publication and the territories concerned.
An example of the route.
A study develops a lamp for a manufacturer. Before the launch, it is necessary to distinguish form, possible technical solution, name of the collection and promotional materials, also checking the conditions for variants and new editions.
Illustrative example: does not describe an assignment or a result obtained by LegalMark.
Useful information for the first comparison.
- Rendering, views and product versions
- Contracts of commission and collaboration
- First publications and presentations
- Markets, channels and variants
At first it is sufficient to describe the objective and the state of the project. Technical documents and sensitive information can be shared at a later time, after agreeing to the communication methods and perimeter.
From industry to services.
The reading of the project allows you to choose the useful verifications: search on the signs, analysis of the technical solution, organization of the portfolio or preparation of an valorization operation. Priorities, times and territories depend on the concrete structure and activities that the company intends to carry out.
General information content. The forms of protection and any requirements must be verified in the concrete case and in the territories concerned.
Frequently asked question
What distinguishes design from a patent?
The protection of design concerns the appearance of the product; the patent covers a technical solution. A product may require an analysis of both profiles, without the one automatically replacing the other.
Talk to LegalMark · Design
Tell us about your project.
Indicates the objective and the territories, avoiding to insert technical information reserved in the first message.
Industry links
Related areas.
Sector and territory · Italy
Design in Italian regions.
Find the territorial context of your activity and the path of protection. The numbers describe the statistical perimeter indicated, not the application for registration of the marks.
Territorial insights
The dedicated pages cover the five territories with the largest number of local units of the active enterprises observed in the chosen perimeter. The selection measures the variety, not the specialization or the possibility of obtaining a registration.
| Region | Number | National quota |
|---|---|---|
| Piedmont | 4.304 | 8,34% |
| Valle d’Aosta | 142 | 0,28% |
| Liguria | 1.197 | 2,32% |
| Lombardy | 15.125 | 29,29% |
| Trentino-Alto Adige | 1.281 | 2,48% |
| Veneto | 5.812 | 11,26% |
| Friuli-Venezia Giulia | 1.150 | 2,23% |
| Emilia-Romagna | 5.105 | 9,89% |
| Tuscany | 4.149 | 8,04% |
| Umbria | 702 | 1,36% |
| Marche | 1.775 | 3,44% |
| Lazio | 4.150 | 8,04% |
| Abruzzo | 730 | 1,41% |
| Molise | 148 | 0,29% |
| Campania | 1.754 | 3,40% |
| Apulia | 1.530 | 2,96% |
| Basilicata | 179 | 0,35% |
| Calabria | 439 | 0,85% |
| Sicily | 1.224 | 2,37% |
| Sardinia | 740 | 1,43% |
Source and data perimeter
ISTAT · ASIA – Local units, flow 183_285_DF_DICA_ASIAULP_2. Year 2023; consultation 11 October 2026. Indicator: local units of active enterprises.
Specialized design activities. direct. ATECO 2007: 741.
Reference ISTAT · Method, limits and downloadable data