This report presents and analyses the legal instruments established for the protection of intellectual property in the shipbuilding industry which could be applied to ship design - the aesthetic side of shipbuilding. To what extent the vessel as a whole or its individual parts can be tangibly protected by copyrights and/or design patents is taken into consideration. Safeguards by means of contractual clauses are of significant importance as well (confidentiality agreements, contractual safeguard clauses for the security of "design rights", etc.). The issue of how this protection is legally and contractually constructed or rather, how it can be constructed, is the main focus of this examination.