Register a Community design within 48 hours

You can, according to President Campinos of OHIM (reported here by MIP). You have to pay the application fee using a current account with the office because other payment methods such as credit cards and bank transfers cause delays (the banks taking the opportunity to put the money into Greek bonds or something overnight, I suppose) and submit a high-quality application, which means email not a smudged fax. Ideally you won't claim priority, but if you do you must submit all the priority documents at the outset. These details appear to have been added by MIP as they don't appear in the published version of the President's speech - he might have been ad-libbing.

Of course, the speed of processing is down to the fact that there is no substantive examination, perhaps no human intervention at all, which makes me wonder why it can't be done within 48 seconds. The Community registered design system is a deposit system in all but name, so what you get at the end of the process, however quick it might be, has to be heavily discounted because of the lack of scrutiny. Registered designs are, of course, virtually impossible to assess for novelty, because the prior art is not organised in a searchable form.

Personally, I'd rather the process took longer and resulted in the grant of a reliable registration. A quick process for obtaining a right that stands a good chance of being worthless is the ultimate triumph of form over substance, making the Community registered design an end in itself. It also makes the application fee little more than a tax on businesses to fund a pointless institution. Excellent nonsense.