PROCEEDING

On submission, an application for industrial design registration shall be subjected to a formal preliminary examination and, if found in order, shall be recorded and the date of submission shall be deemed the filing date.
Once the application has been filed, it shall be published automatically, registration shall be granted simultaneously and the relevant certificate shall be issued.
An application may be kept secret for a period of 180 (one hundred and eighty) days as from the filing date, following which it shall be prosecuted.
Registrations shall have a term of 10 (ten) years as from the date of filing and this term shall be renewable for 3 (three) successive 5 (five) year periods.
Applications for renewal shall be made during the last year of the term of the registration.
The owner of an industrial design may at any time during the term of the registration request examination as to novelty and originality of the subject matter of the registration.