Registered Designs
Registered designs are used to protect the visual appearance of products.
Examples of registrable designs include clothes designs, vehicle designs, electronic device designs, sports equipment designs and container designs, furniture designs, appliance designs etc. In order to register a design it must be new and distinctive.
New means that the design (or one very similar) has not been publicly used in Australia and has not been published anywhere in the world.
A Distinctive design is one that is substantially different in overall appearance to other designs in the public domain.
With design registrations you need to be aware that:
- They are intended to protect industrial designs rather than a single artistic work (the latter is covered by Copyright protection).
- The protection you receive is only for the appearance of the product and not how it works.
- Applications to register a design must be filed before the design is publicly disclosed. A registered design can provide legal protection from unauthorised copying of the design for up to 10 years.
A registered design which has been examined and certified gives you a legally enforceable right to use your product’s design to gain a marketing advantage. It also prevents others from using the design without your agreement.
Call us to discuss your Confidential Consultation:
AUSTRALIA
Head Office: 07 4775 1000
Mackay/Rocky: 07 4953 0671
Ipswich/Toowoomba: 07 4659 9730
Gold Coast: Mobile 0413 968 437
NEW ZEALAND
Auckland: Mobile 0220 216 003
Many of our Australian clients have appeared on the ABC’s New Inventor Program. Some of these inventions will enter international markets within the next 12 months.
Almost 2 million Patents are applied for annually. WIPO Statistics, June 2009
WIPO is a specialized agency of the United Nations.
It promotes the protection of intellectual property worldwide. WIPO also ensures administrative cooperation among the intellectual property Unions established by the treaties that WIPO administers.
The Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property
Signed in Paris, France, March 20 1883, was one of the first intellectual property treaties. As a result of this treaty, intellectual property, including patents, of any contracting state are accessible to the nationals of other states party to the Convention. The Paris Convention is administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) based in Geneva, Switzerland
The Madrid System
Is the international system used for facilitating the registration of trademarks in multiple jurisdictions around the world
