Legislation in this field can be read at Legislation.

The objects of industrial property are defined in the Paris Convention for the protection of industrial property, signed on March 20, 1883. We can divide it into three groups:

1. Creations:

• inventions - providing a technical solution to a technical problem in any field of technology
• utility models - a form of protection ensured by the registration or granting of a patent for an invention, normally belonging to the mechanical field
• drawings and industrial models - by which the new aspect of a utilitarian product is protected

2. Characteristic signs:

• marks - signs that can be graphically represented, serving to differentiate the products or services of one natural or legal person from those of another
• geographical indications - the name serving to identify a product originating from a specific country, region, or place in a state, if it contains some feature, reputation, or other determining characteristics that can be essentially attributed to this geographical origin
• trade names - the name or, as the case may be, denomination under which a trader carries on his/her commercial activity and which he/she used as a signature

3. Repressing unfair competition - promoting the means of defence against competitive acts that infringe the rules of honest practice in commerce or industry (ro.wikipedia.org/)

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Patent

The sole title granting protection for inventions in Romania is the patent, in compliance with Law n^o 64 of 11 October, 1991***, republished, regarding patents.
The validity of a patent is 20 years, starting from the date when the required national deposit was made.
The patent gives its owner the right to forbid third parties from doing the following actions without his/her approval:
- for products: manufacturing, trading, selling, using, importing, or storing them for sale or giving them for sale;
- for procedures and methods: using them.
The extent of the cover provided by the patent depends on the content of the claims, interpreted according to the description and drawings of the invention.

The trademark

The trademark is an essential part of the company strategy, because it makes the distinction between the products and services of one company and those of the competition.[Law n^o 84/1998 regarding trademarks and geographical indications.]

The trademark is made up of words - including names of people -, drawings, letters, numbers, images, three-dimensional elements, and first of all the shape of the product and the packaging, the colour combination, and any other combination of these signs.

For the customer, it is the most comfortable way to quickly identify a category of products or services that has been recommended to him/her or that he/she has grown to prefer, as a result of experience, to other products or services of the same kind. For the company, the trademark is a means of attracting and keeping customers. A trademark is opposable to another one, used by the competition, only after it has been registered with OSIM.

The rights of the trademark owner are confirmed by the trademark registration certificate. The trademark registration gives its owner an exclusive right over the trademark regarding the products and/or services for which the registration has been made, over a period of 10 years following the date when the deposit was made. The registration forbids third parties from filing in or using the trademark for the same products or services in the absence of an authorisation, in whatever form.

The geographical indication

The geographical indication is the name serving to identify a product originating from a specific country, region, or place in a state, if it contains some feature, reputation, or other determining characteristics that can be essentially attributed to this geographical origin

The drawing or industrial model

The outer aspect of a product, in a two- or three-dimensional form, having an utilitarian function, can be registered as a drawing or an industrial model.
A drawing designates the patterns (two-dimensional forms) that appear on fabrics, paper, porcelain, etc.
The model designates the three-dimensional form of, for instance, electrical appliances, furniture, shoewear, etc.