Industrial Designs

An industrial design constitutes the ornamental or aesthetic aspect of an article. It may consist of three-dimensional features, such as the shape of an article, or two-dimensional features, such as patterns, lines, or colour. 

Adopted in 1925, the Hague Agreement effectively establishes an international system – the Hague System – that allows industrial designs to be protected in multiple countries or regions with minimal formalities.

• Registered design owners have the right to prevent others from manufacturing, importing, using, selling or hiring the design product. However, registered designs only protect the appearance of a product. It does not protect the way in which the product relating to the design works. Protection for this may be available under patent law. 

• Registration gives you a higher degree of protection than relying on copyright because it requires a search first for similar or identical registered designs. This helps to establish whether your design is new and original.

Industrial designs are applied to a wide variety of products of industry and handicraft items. These range from:

1. Packages and containers 
2. Household goods
3. Lighting equipment 
4. Jewellery
5. Electronic devices 
6. Textiles 
7. Industrial designs may also be relevant to graphic symbols, graphical user interfaces, and logos.

The protection of industrial designs should form an integral part of any business strategy. The main reasons to protect industrial designs are the following:

• Return on investments: Protection contributes to obtaining a return on investments made in creating and marketing attractive and innovative products.
• Opportunity to license or sell: Protection provides rights that may be sold or licensed to another enterprise, which will then be a source of income for the owner of the rights.
• Positive image: Protection helps convey a positive image of a company, since industrial designs are business assets which may increase the market value of a company and its products.
• Reward: Protecting industrial designs rewards and encourages creativity.

Your application must include a list of all articles which you want to register your designs with.

The International Classification for Industrial Designs (“the Locarno Classification”) is a system adopted for classifying design articles. It facilitates design searches and obviates substantial reclassification work when documents are exchanged at the international level. For details of the Locarno Classification, please refer to the website at https://www.wipo.int/classifications/locarno/en/

Registered design protection is renewable for periods of five years. However, design protection can only be renewed twice.

You should renew your registered design on or before its end date of registration, as an associated design cannot be renewed if the original registered design is not renewed.

The owner of a registered design, or an exclusive licensee, can bring civil proceedings against infringements committed after the registration of a design. Owners of registered designs should consult their legal advisers on this aspect before taking steps to defend their rights.

Criminally, any person who knowingly performs an act as defined in subsection (1) of the Act is liable to a fine of $50,000 or to imprisonment for 3 years.