This is an argument that has had especial success in the European Union where such design patents are taken more seriously than they are in many other places.

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The Soviet Union's Mil Design Bureau is reported to have as many as three different tiltrotor designs under development for various military applications.

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The Forum was the object of the first international design contest in Japan to be officially recognized by the Union Internationale des Architectes, the Paris-based organization that is the world's most prestigious association of architects.

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The biggest union, Unite, wants to keep production, design and as much of the supply chain as possible in Britain.

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Design patents (as opposed to technical ones) are European Union wide.

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"We are a group of students and recent grads from Parsons, NYU-ITP and Cooper Union studying art, engineering, environmental science, and design, " said the Windchimes team.

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Of course, Europe's problems are more deep-seated than America's, thanks to the principal flaw in the euro's design: that it is a single currency operating in a continent without fiscal union.

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In 1996, the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) published the Lugano Charter which drew up narrow guidelines on bicycle design, and in 2009 the swimming world governing body FINA outlawed Speedo's LZR Racer swimsuit (launched in 2008) after world records were routinely broken.

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