Opposition

Registered designs are published in the Design Gazette right after registration. After the publication, any party who thinks that the design should not have been accepted into the Designs Register can file an opposition against the design.

The owner of the design right will be notified of the opposition and invited to give a statement on it. Read more about the opposition proceedings.

Opposition period

File your opposition in writing with the PRH within two months of the publication date of the registration.

If the last opposition day falls on a weekend or midweek holiday, the deadline is moved to the following working day. If there is no corresponding date in the final month, the opposition period is taken to expire on the last day of that month.

For example, if the design has been published on 31 December, the opposition period will end on 28 February, or on 29 February in a leap year.

The opposition period cannot be extended.

Opposition contents and grounds

The opposition is a written free-form report where you should identify the registration you oppose (by the registration number) and supply your name and address. Specify which of the designs included in the registration your opposition concerns.

Your opposition should include all the grounds for the opposition, such as where, when and how the designs specified in the opposition have been made public.

After the opposition period has expired, you can complete your opposition for example with additional evidence or grounds which support your claims, but you are not allowed to introduce new grounds.

Language of opposition

Oppositions must be filed in either Finnish or Swedish.

How to submit oppositions and statements to the PRH

If your opposition, or the statement you give on an opposition, includes a very extensive amount of enclosures, you must send us two copies by post.

If the whole document is small enough to be attached to an email, you can email it to us in one file. In that case you do not need to send the original copy by post.

You can send your opposition or statement to us by post or by email, or you can bring it to our customer service. See our contact details.