A patent covers the function, operation or construction of an invention. Any invention can be patented in all technical fields, as long as it is novel, contains creative steps and is easy for industrial application.
For more information about patents, please refer to the European patent registration.
Design only includes the appearance of the product. Design cannot protect the function of the product.
When a product is protected by both patent and design registration (that is, a new product can contain both new functions and new appearance), the application time is crucial, because it needs to ensure that the right to publish one or another product does not exclude seeking novelty for other applications.