"Design is in everything we make"

Aesthetics play an extremely important role in determining sales success in many commercial fields.  The market for mobile phones provides a good example in that the various manufacturers are constantly striving to produce modern and sleek designs. You only have to visually compare superseded mobile phone handset designs against the current crop to gain an insight into this phenomenon.

Registered designs provide a legal avenue for the protection of the appearance of an article and specifically protection for features of shape, configuration, pattern or ornamentation of an article. 

ADAMS PLUCK can assist in the filing of designs applications in Australia and overseas.

Application Process

The typical approach is to firstly file in Australia.  If foreign protection is also required, foreign applications are filed within a six month period from the initial Australian filing date. To be valid, a design must be new and original at the date on which the application is filed. Hence, a design must be kept confidential, and must not be commercialised, until such time as an application is filed. 

Australian design applications are initially only examined by IP Australia for compliance with certain formalities issues.  IP Australia does not initially assess whether or not the design is new and original.  Rather, once any formalities issues have been addressed, the design application will proceed to registration and publication.

The owner of an Australian design registration cannot commence infringement proceedings against a competitor until such time as the registration has been ‘certified’.  This is a process in which IP Australia examines the application to make an assessment of its validity.  The certification process may be commenced by the owner, the Registrar of Designs or any interested third party, typically a competitor.

Australian design registrations are initially in force for a period of five years.  Payment of a renewal fee is required to bring the term to its maximum of ten years. ADAMS PLUCK makes use of Computer Patent Annuities (CPA) to attend to such payments.