In Intellectual Property Law, design, meaning design rights, protects the visual appearance of products. These rights give you the exclusive use of your design or the right to authorise its use by an approved party.
To qualify for design rights, your design must be new, distinctive and have a tangible, physical form. Although a design application must be new at the time of filing, a 12 month grace period for self disclosure is available under certain circumstances.
A design right, in Australia, differs from a patent but offers a similar form of protection. The protection is however limited to the visual appearance of the registered design whereas a patent protects functionality. A design must be applied for via the same government body (IP Australia) and shares a complex approvals process. A design can be significantly quicker to grant and be enforceable than a patent.
Exactly what a design is can vary across the commercial world. So long as a design meets the core criteria above, it can be classed as a design under IP law.
Design can refer to decorative patterns, graphic symbols, the shape of products and their packaging or a combination of all of these. Even the external look of a shop or its fit-out may qualify for design rights.
Examples of registered designs include the unique shape of a Coca-Cola bottle, Apple store frontages, the red sole of a Louboutin shoe and the shape of a Dyson hairdryer.
A design is typically, instantly recognisable as being linked with a specific brand or product.
Once registered, your design rights in Australia last up to a maximum of 10 years, with a renewal required at five years.
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IP Guardian helps protect words, symbols, letters, numbers, names, signatures, phrases, sounds, shapes and smells. Yes, I said smells.
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