This helps to ensure a fair return on investment. An effective system of protection also benefits consumers and the public at large , by promoting fair competition and honest trade practices, encouraging creativity, and promoting more aesthetically attractive products. Protecting industrial designs helps economic development , by encouraging creativity in the industrial and manufacturing sectors, as well as in traditional arts and crafts. They contribute to the expansion of commercial activities and the export of national products.
Industrial designs can be relatively simple and inexpensive to develop and protect.
They are reasonably accessible to small and medium-sized enterprises as well as to individual artists and craftsmen, in both industrialized and developing countries. In most countries, an industrial design must be registered in order to be protected under industrial design law. Different countries have varying definitions of such terms, as well as variations in the registration process itself. Once a design is registered, a registration certificate is issued. Depending on the particular national law and the kind of design, an industrial design may also be protected as a work of art under copyright law .