Yes, in most countries, in order to be protected by local laws, design must be registered by the state authority. However some countries have established limited protection for unregistered designs if the certain conditions are met.

The design protection does not automaticaly arises once you create your design as it is in copyright protection system. But in some cases copyright protection may also apply as the various design creations meet the criteria of copyrightable work.

As the territorial principle applies here, the protection is only granted within the country in which you have registered your design. Exception from this are for instance the regional design systems where your design registration is valid throughout the territory of all member states of that regional union. And yes, that suddenly means you are not protected by your Armenia registered design in the Estonia.

Novelty and originality are the main conditions which design must meet in order to be eligible for registration.

Novelty means that the same design has not been previously been disclosed to the public. Originality means that the design differs from the already known designs or design combinations.

Registered design system exists on international, regional and national levels. On international level there is Hague system through which you can seek design protection in multiple countries throughout the world with a single application.

On the regional level there is for instance European Union system administered by European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) and African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO). These allow you to register your design in certain region with a single application and that can save you a lot of money and time in the process.

If you are willing to protect your design on the national level, most countries of the world have established national design registration systems which are mainly administered by the national industrial property offices.

Once your design is registered you have exclusive right to authorize everyone else for its usage, selling, making, distribution and a few other related rights.

The registered design protection mostly lasts for maximum amount of 25 years from the date on which your design application was filed. However in most countries you must renew the duration of your registered design every 5 years in order to remain its effect. This may wary from country to country.

There are various ways of monetizing your registered design. Two main options are that you either use your registered design to get competitive edge in your market area and second is that you sell your registered design to someone who can use it as his competitive edge. Another very popular option is to licence your registered design to someone else and gain passive income regularly.