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related:

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Patents  

Trademarks

     designs

This page looks at designs, a category of industrial property.

It covers -

• introduction
• designs
• Australian and overseas legislation
• studies - industry, consumer, academic and government studies and pointers to major sites
• statistics

The Australian regime is explored in more detail in a supplementary note.

     introduction

As noted earlier in this guide, patent and design protection (along with protection of trademarks and geographical indications) comprises the category of intellectual property known as 'industrial property'.

Most nations have enacted legislation regarding patents (for the protection of 'inventions', ie innovations in products or processes) and designs (the appearance of manufactured items).

Broad consistency across the national regimes is provided by the 1883 Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property and the Agreement on the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement).

     designs

Industrial property includes 'designs', with the expectation that registration will protect designs that have an industrial or commercial use. (Designs that are essentially artistic works - eg one-off rather than manufactured - are covered by copyright legislation and not eligible for design registration).

Protection under designs legislation concerns the visual appearance of manufactured products rather than how those items perform. It thus relates to the shape, configuration, pattern or ornamentation which, when applied to a product, gives that item a unique appearance.

Registration is restricted to designs that are "new and distinctive". In Australia registration initially protects a design for five years, with scope for renewal for a further five years.

     Australian and overseas legislation

Australian design protection legislation is -

Designs Act 2003, updating the 1906 Designs Act (here), protecting the shape or appearance of manufactured goods for industrial or commercial use

1989 Circuit Layouts Act (here), covering the three-dimensional configuration of electronic circuits in integrated circuit products or layout designs

In New Zealand the salient legislation is the

Designs Act 1953
Layout Designs Act 1994

The Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, concluded in 1883, is one of the bases of the international intellectual property system and is a counterpart to the Berne Convention. It applies to industrial property in the broadest sense: inventions, trademarks, industrial designs, utility models (a form of patent under the laws of some countries), trade names and geographical indications (indications of source and appellations of origin). As of December 2002 some 164 states were part of the Convention.

     studies

The Australian Industrial Property Office (AIPO), the local version of the US Patent Office, has recently published an online version of its detailed Manual of Practice & Procedure.

     statistics

In Australia figures for the number of designs are

In 2003-4 some 18,000 trademarks, 900 designs and 3,000 patents were registered in New Zealand. The same year saw renewal of 9,310 trademarks, 600 designs and 8,570 patents.





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