(1) The provisions of this Act apply to all registered designs extended in accordance with the Extension Act (Erstreckungsgesetz) of 23 April 1992 (Federal Law Gazette I, p. 938), as last amended by Article 2 (10) of the Act of 12 March 2004 (Federal Law Gazette I, p. 390), unless otherwise provided under subsections (2) to (7).
(2) The term of protection for registered designs which did not lapse on 28 October 2001 ends 25 years after the end of that month in which the date of filing falls. Renewal of protection is effected by means of payment of a renewal fee for the 16th to 20th year and for the 21st to 25th year, calculated from the date of filing.
(3) If the claim for remuneration on account of the use of a registered design has already arisen in accordance with those statutory provisions which were applicable up until the entry into force of the Extension Act, the remuneration still has to be paid in accordance with these provisions.
(4) Any person who has lawfully commenced use of a registered design, in accordance with the statutory provisions applicable up until the entry into force of the Extension Act, which was protected by an inventor’s certificate extended under section 4 of the Extension Act, as amended on 31 May 2004, or in respect of which an inventor’s certificate had been sought, may continue to use it within the whole federal territory. The holder of the industrial property right may require appropriate remuneration from the person entitled to use the registered design with respect to its continued use.
(5) Where an application for a patent for an industrial design which was extended in accordance with section 4 of the Extension Act, as amended on 31 May 2004, was published in accordance with section 10 (1) of the Ordinance on Industrial Designs (Verordnung über industrielle Muster) of 17 January 1974 (Law Gazette I No. 15, p. 140), as amended by the Ordinance of 9 December 1988 (Law Gazette I No. 28, p. 333), this is equal to publication of the registration of the application in the Design Register (Musterregister) in accordance with section 8 (2) of the Design Act (Geschmacksmustergesetz) in the version applicable until midnight on 31 May 2004.
(6) Insofar as registered designs extended under the Extension Act to the territory designated in Article 3 of the Unification Treaty (Einigungsvertrag) or to the remaining federal territory are concurrent in their scope of protection and therefore collide as a result of extension, the holders of such titles or applications may not assert rights deriving from those titles or applications, irrespective of their filing or priority date, either against each other or against persons authorised by the holder of the other title or the other application to use them. However, the subject matter of the title or of the application may not be used or may only be used with restrictions in the territory to which the title or the application has been extended if unlimited use would lead to a particular disadvantage for the holder of the other title or of the other application or for persons who have been authorised to use the subject matter of the title or of the application and would be unreasonable, when taking into account all the circumstances of the case and when weighing up the justified interests of those concerned.
(7) The effect of a registered design extended under section 1 or section 4 of the Extension Act, as amended on 31 May 2004, does not apply to any person who had lawfully begun to use the registered design in the territory in which the title did not apply up until the entry into force of the Extension Act after the day which is operative for the filing or priority date of the application and prior to 1 July 1990. Such person is authorised to use the registered design in the whole of the federal territory for the needs of their own business in their own plant or workshops or the plant or workshops of others with the limitations resulting from applying section 12 of the Patent Act accordingly, on condition that the use does not cause particular prejudice to the holder of the title or the persons who have been authorised to use the subject matter of the title and would be unreasonable when taking into account all the circumstances of the case and when weighing up the justified interests of those concerned. In the case of a product manufactured abroad, the user only has a right to continued use under sentence 1 if the use in Germany has led to a property situation which warrants protecting and whose non-recognition, taking into account all the circumstances of the case, would represent an unreasonable hardship for the user.