Protect your clever innovations before you tell the world
Registered Designs
Industrial designers can protect original creative work with design registrations. Given the high value of stylish forms and features of devices and products in a rapidly changing market, and given reliance on creative packaging to sell plain-looking products, keeping a competitive edge with protecting designs is highly regarded.
Industrial designs covering aesthetic features of a device or product can be protected for up to 15 years in New Zealand, and with a shorter term in Australia. Registration offers an exclusive right to the design features applied to an article or object. This does not mean that the design must have high artistic merit to be protected. As long as the design has some visual or aesthetic appeal, it will likely be entitled to design protection.
The visual appeal can be the shape and configuration, or pattern and ornamentation, as applied to the article. The design protection does not extend to protecting functional features of the article. If the article also embodies a functional innovation, it could be protected with a patent. It is noted that dual patent and design registration covering both the patentable idea and design features is possible.
The overall investment in a design registration is a fraction of the cost of a patent, and takes typically a year or less to complete.