S.I. No. 27 of 2003 
European Communities (Community Designs) Regulations 2003  
I, MARY HARNEY, Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, in exercise of the 
powers conferred on me by section 3 of th e European Communities Act 1972 ( No. 27 
of 1972 ) and for the purpose of giving effect  to Council Regulation (EC) No. 6/2002 of 
12 December 2001 on Community designs and, inso far as these Regulations relate to 
fees, with the consent of the Minister  for Finance, hereby make the following 
Regulations: 
Citation  
1.         These Regulations may be c ited as the European Communities (Community 
Designs) Regulations 2003. 
Interpretation  
2.   (1)  In these Regulations— 
“Community design” has the meaning given by Article 1(1) of th e Community Designs 
Regulation; 
“Community Designs Regulation” means Council Regulation (EC) No. 6/2002 of 12 
December 2001 on Community designs; “Controller” means the Controller of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks; 
“registered Community design” means a design protected under the Community 
Designs Regulation as a result of being regi stered in the manner provided for in that 
Regulation. 
(2)  In these Regulations, a reference to an Article is to an Article of the Community 
Designs Regulation. 
Filling and forwarding of applicatio ns for registered Community designs  
3.  (1)   For the purpose of Article 35, the Pate nts Office is the central  industrial property 
office of the State. 
(2)  Where an application for a registered  Community design is filed under Article 
35 at the Patents Office, a fee of €25 is pa yable by the applicant to the Controller 
and shall be paid— 
(a)  on the date of filing, and 
(b)  by any method acceptable to the Controller. Designation of Community design courts  
4.         For the purposes of the Community Designs Regulation — 
(a)  the High Court is designated as  a Community design court of first 
instance, and 
(b)  the Supreme Court is designate d as a Community design court of 
second instance. 
Enforcement of decisions fixing the amount of costs 
5.         For the purpose of Article 71(2),  the Controller is desi gnated as the national 
authority. 
  GIVEN under my Official Seal, 
this 29th day of January 2003. 
   
  MARY HARNEY 
  Minister for Enterpri se, Trade and Employment. 
The fee prescribed by these Regulations is  sanctioned by the Minister for Finance. 
  GIVEN under the Official Seal of the Minister for Finance, 
this 28th day of January 2003. 
   
  CHARLIE McCREEVY 
  Minister for Finance 
EXPLANATORY NOTE 
(This note is not part of the Instrument and does not purport to be a legal instrument.)  
Council Regulation (EC) No. 6/2002 on Commun ity designs establishes a system for 
registration of industrial desi gns providing protection thr oughout the Community in the same manner as the Community Trade Mark sy stem currently does for trade marks. The 
system came into operation in 2003 and is administered by the Office for Harmonisation 
in the Internal Market (Trade Marks and Designs) (OHIM) in Alicante, Spain. 
The European Communities (Community Designs) Regulations 2003 give effect in 
Ireland to provisions of Council Regulation (EC) No. 6/2002 on Community designs. The 
Regulations prescribe a handling fee of €25 to  be charged by the Patents Office to cover 
the administrative costs of receiving and fo rwarding Community design applications to 
OHIM. They designate the High Court as th e court of first instance and the Supreme 
Court as the court of sec ond instance for the purposes of Article 80(1) of Council 
Regulation (EC) No. 6/2002. In addition, the Re gulations designate the Controller of 
Patents, Designs and Trade Marks as the nati onal authority for the purposes of Article 71 
of Council Regulation (EC) No. 6/2002, which deal s with the enforcement of decisions of 
OHIM fixing the amount of costs. 
Published by the Stationery Office, Dublin.