PUBLIC LAW 105-304—OCT. 28, 1998 112 STAT. 2907 matter. Such protection shall be independent of any subsisting protection in subject matter employed in the design, and shall not be construed as securing any right to subject matter excluded from protection under this chapter or as extending any subsisting protection under this chapter.
- § 1304. Commencement of protection
"The protection provided for a design under this chapter shall commence upon the earlier of the date of publication of the registration under section 1313(a) or the date the design is first made public as defined by section 1310(b). "§ 1305. Term of protection "(a) IN GENERAL. —Subject to subsection (b), the protection provided under this chapter for a design shall continue for a term of 10 years beginning on the date of the commencement of protection under section 1304. "(b) EXPIRATION. —All terms of protection provided in this section shall run to the end of the calendar year in which they would otherwise expire. "(c) TERMINATION OF RIGHTS.— Upon expiration or termination of protection in a particular design under this chapter, all rights under this chapter in the design shall terminate, regardless of the number of different articles in which the design may have been used during the term of its protection. § 1306. Design notice "(a) CONTENTS OF DESIGN NOTICE.—(1) Whenever any design for which protection is sought under this chapter is made public under section 1310(b), the owner of the design shall, subject to the provisions of section 1307, mark it or have it marked legibly with a design notice consisting of— "(A) the words 'Protected Design', the abbreviation 'Prot'd Des.', or the letter 'D' with a circle, or the s3anbol '*D*'; "(B) the year of the date on which protection for the design commenced; and "(C) the name of the owner, an abbreviation by which the name can be recognized, or a generally accepted alternative designation of the owner. Any distinctive identification of the owner may be used for purposes of subparagraph (C) if it has been recorded by the Administrator before the design marked with such identification is registered. "(2) After registration, the registration number may be used instead of the elements specified in subparagraphs (B) and (C) of paragraph (1). "(b) LOCATION OF NOTICE. —The design notice shall be so located and applied as to give reasonable notice of design protection while the useful article embodying the design is passing through its normal channels of commerce. "(c) SUBSEQUENT REMOVAL OF NOTICE. — When the owner of a design has complied with the provisions of this section, protection under this chapter shall not be affected by the removal, destruction, or obliteration by others of the design notice on an article.
- § 1307. Effect of omission of notice
"(a) ACTIONS WITH NOTICE. — Except as provided in subsection (b), the omission of the notice prescribed in section 1306 shall
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