PORTUGAL LAW AND PRACTICE Contributed by: Joana Torres Fernandes, José Manuel Pereira da Costa, Danielle Avidago, Javier Mateo, António Pratas Nunes, Joana Loureiro Veríssimo, Madalena Mourão and David Serras Pereira, LVP Advogados
of or harms the reputation of a well-known or reputed mark. Remedies include injunctions, damages, seizure, withdrawal or destruction of infringing goods, cus - toms action and publication of judgments. Trade mark infringement and counterfeiting may also trigger criminal proceedings. Owners should monitor the market and the INPI, EUIPO and domain name registers, since non-use for a continuous period may expose the registration to revocation. 7.3 Industrial Designs Industrial designs protect the appearance of the whole or part of a product. This may include lines, contours, colours, shape, texture, materials or ornamentation, provided that the design is new and has individual character. Design protection is particularly relevant for consumer products, fashion, packaging, furniture, technology hardware, interfaces and other products where appearance has commercial value. Registration and Duration In Portugal, designs are registered before INPI under the Industrial Property Code. Once granted, national design protection may last for up to 25 years, usu - ally through successive five-year periods of protec - tion. Applicants may also seek protection through the EU design system, which is often attractive where the product will be marketed across several EU jurisdic - tions. The registration process involves filing representations of the design and identifying the product to which it applies. Businesses should pay particular attention to the timing of disclosure. Public disclosure before filing may affect novelty, although certain grace-peri - od rules can be relevant. As a practical matter, filing before launch is usually the safest approach. Enforcement and Remedies A registered design allows the holder to prevent third parties from making, offering, putting on the market, importing, exporting or using a product incorporat - ing a design that does not produce a different overall impression on the informed user. Enforcement may be brought before the Portuguese Intellectual Property
Court, with remedies including interim and final injunc - tions, seizure, withdrawal from the market, destruction of infringing goods, damages and publication of the judgment. Where the appearance of a product is also distinctive or creative, overlapping protection through trade marks, copyright or unfair competition rules may also be considered. 7.4 Copyright Copyright protects original literary, scientific and artis - tic works. In Portugal, the main legal framework is the Code of Copyright and Related Rights. Protected works may include books, articles, music, lyrics, audi - ovisual works, photographs, software, architectural works, visual arts and other original creations. Copy - right protects the form of expression of an idea, not the idea, method, concept or business model itself. Creation, Ownership and Duration Copyright arises automatically upon creation of the work and does not depend on registration. As a gen - eral rule, economic rights last for 70 years after the author’s death, although specific rules apply to col - lective, anonymous, audiovisual and other categories of works. Moral rights are also important under Por - tuguese law and include the right to claim authorship and to object to certain distortions or uses that harm the author’s honour or reputation. Ownership should be addressed carefully in contracts. In many business contexts, such as commissioned works, employment, software development, market - ing materials and audiovisual production, the main risk is not whether copyright exists, but whether the com - pany has obtained the necessary rights to use, adapt, distribute, communicate or sublicense the work. Writ - ten assignments or licenses should therefore identify the works, rights, territory, term, permitted uses and remuneration. Registration and Enforcement Registration with the Inspectorate-General for Cultural Activities (IGAC) is optional, but may be useful as evi - dence of authorship, ownership or date of creation. Copyright can be enforced through civil and, in certain cases, criminal proceedings. Remedies may include injunctions, seizure, removal of infringing copies, damages, publication of the decision and measures
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