Annual Technical Report on Industrial Design Information Activities in 2017 submitted by IP Australia
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Where URLs are requested below, it is preferred that either URLs which are likely to remain stable over time (three years or more) are provided, or home (main) page URLs are provided with a short explanation of how to access the corresponding information.
The expression "industrial designs" covers industrial designs and models.
Offices which issue design patents should report their design patent information activities in this series of Annual Technical Reports.
I. GENERAL OVERVIEW OF RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION ACTIVITIES CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE
The designs system protects the visual features of a product - including the shape, configuration, pattern and ornamentation which, when applied to the product, give it a unique appearance. The current designs system has been in operation since the commencement of the Designs Act 2003 on 17 June 2004.
Outline of main policies and plans aimed at development of industrial design information activities and expected time frames for their realization
The former Advisory Council on Intellectual Property (ACIP), an independent body appointed by the Australian Government, reviewed the designs system (2012-2015) to investigate its effectiveness in stimulating innovation. The Government considered the recommendations in 2015 and responded on 6 May 2016.
The recommendations aimed to:
- improve design protection
- clarify designs law for owners and third parties
- streamline the processing of design applications
- improve harmonisation with international practices.
The Government has agreed to the majority of ACIP’s recommendations and is currently working towards implementing these changes, including those that would require legislative reform.
The Australian Government’s Productivity Commission completed a 12 month inquiry into Australia’s intellectual property arrangements on 23 September 2016. The Australian designs system was included as part of this review. The final report was made public on 20 December 2016 and IP Australia is currently considering its response to the report.
In its final report, the productivity commission (PC) adopted the Advisory Council on Intellectual Property’s (ACIP) position in that Australia should not join the Hague Agreement until a cost-benefit analysis is conducted. (See Advisory Council on Intellectual Property, Review of the Designs System, Final report, March 2015, p 10, recommendation 3 (‘ACIP, Designs Review, 2015’)). This is termed a “wait and be convinced approach” in the report, and includes monitoring how other states approach joining the Hague Agreement. (See PC, Intellectual Property Arrangements, 2016, p 351.) The PC made particular reference to the impacts of an increased term of protection as Australia would have to extend the length of the design right term from 10 to 15 years to accede to the Hague Agreement. The PC found no evidence that an increase in the term of protection for design rights would incentivise further innovation, and any benefits may preferentially accrue to non-residents since Australia is likely to remain a net importer of design IP. (See PC, Intellectual Property Arrangements, 2016, p 351-353.)
RIO for Designs was implemented by March 2016. The RIO program of work is developing a new IP Rights management system, simplifying and harmonising our processes, developing a new search solution and providing richer and timely business intelligence.
Significant work is underway to modernise and improve IP Australia’s business systems and processing environment. This work will progressively deliver a more agile business environment that captures efficiencies and improves customer service delivery. The first of the organisation’s four business lines (Designs) has gone live with a pilot of the new system known as RIO (Rights-In-One).
What is Rights-In-One?
RIO is predominantly an internal administrative system for electronically receiving, processing and monitoring IP right cases and their related customer interactions. The system includes document management, correspondence generation and decision support functionality which span a complex array of quasi-legal business processes unique to the IP system.
Since online transactions now account for more than 98 per cent of IP Australia’s approximately 850,000 customer service interactions each year, the RIO Program holds a key to achieving better customer service delivery and improved internal efficiencies.
RIO will eventually enable the decommissioning of more than twenty legacy systems including a thirty year old mainframe with commensurate maintenance and operational savings.
3D model filing project:
Beginning September 2017 this pilot program allowed the supply of 3D files as part of an application to register a design. It offered as an option only and will act as a visualisation aid for examiners. It will not define the scope of protection, be considered part of the specification, or be published on the designs search system, online journal or on any certificates.
- Release was through our eservices channel and later on to B2B users.
- This tool compliments our recent internal case management system upgrade and current work upgrading our designs search system. Part of our strategy to develop these systems is to make sure they are future proof and capable of handling new technology types and formats that the industry uses to create their IP.
- This also follows on from a similar initiative at EUIPO to accept 3D files for designs.
Design applications filed
2016: 7,278
2017: 7,708
Percentage difference: Design applications filed increased by 5.9%
Design applications Registered
2016: 6,668
2017: 7,337
Percentage difference: Design applications granted increased by 10.0 %
Note: A single application may include a number of designs (multiple). However, each design in the application will be allocated a separate application number even if it is filed as a multiple. The figures above are for the number of designs filed.
Other matters and useful links (URLs): annual report of the Office, news page, statistics, etc.
https://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/about-us/economics-ip
https://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/about-us/data-and-research/australian-ip-report
II. SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE
Planning, administration, automation, security
IP Australia’s Contact Centre provides a central contact for customers to obtain information about a wide range of Intellectual Property issues. Customers contact the Call Centre via telephone, and online enquiry form with around 95% of matters of a general nature solved at the first point of contact.
Increasingly, IP Australia is using its web site as a means of providing an alternative means of public access to these services. Currently, Designs can be searched via ADDS. A new searching tool will be developed as part of the RIO program.
Launched in early 2016, IP Australia’s Virtual Assistant ‘Alex’ is available 24/7 across a number of electronic platforms (primarily our corporate website) to answer general customer queries concerning IP Rights. Virtual Assistants play an integral role in the provision of general information in response to customer queries concerning the products and services of the agency.
Collection management, preservation
All Australian Designs records/documents are handled in accordance with Office procedures set down under Australian Law and archiving practices.
Information services available to the public (including computerized services and search files contained in libraries remote from your Office and industrial design information posted by your Office on the World Wide Web)
Information services are available on the IP Australia website - http://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/
URLs of web pages of the Office's website for electronic filing of industrial design applications
http://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/get-the-right-ip/eservices/
URLs of web pages of the Office’s website that provide information on business procedures such as: filing, publication, examination and registration procedures related to industrial designs; opposition and appeal procedures related to industrial designs; etc.
General information
https://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/designs
Forms and Publications
https://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/tools-resources/designs-forms
and
http://pericles.ipaustralia.gov.au/ols/edesign/epublish/search_page.jsp
Examiners Manual
http://manuals.ipaustralia.gov.au/designs/designs_exam_manual.htm
Hearings, Decisions and Appeals
https://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/designs/managing-your-design/protecting-your-design
URLs of web pages of the Office’s website that provide a description of information products and services offered by the Office (e.g., industrial design search service(s) and industrial design databases), as well as information on how to access and utilize them
http://pericles.ipaustralia.gov.au/adds2/adds.adds_start.intro
Availability of the application dossier in electronic form
As at 2017 IP Australia does not provide the application dossier in an electronic form.
Industrial Design applications are classified according to the International Designs Classification [Locarno].
Active IDC classes are, in specific instances, further subdivided into internally defined subdivisions.
III. SOURCES OF INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THE OFFICE
The Australian Official Journal of Designs is published fortnightly. There are 25 issues per year - the Easter and Christmas weeks being excluded. The Journal is available on-line, free of charge, via the IP Australia internet site and contains both bibliographic text and images.
Standard Notices, such as renewal notices are generated by RIO. Letters sent as a result of a request, such as an amendment or extension of time are issued by RIO if that specific task has an acknowledgement feature attached to it, for example, ‘Amendment Made’, ‘Extension of Time Refused’. Any ad-hoc letters written in reply to enquiries received by phone or email for example, would be attached to the RIO case file using the Maintain IP Right function.
Formalities Notices and Examination Reports are generated in RIO using DocGen; a document generation tool developed by Intellidox.
The Official Journal contains the following announcements:
- Applications Filed
- Applications Registered or Published
- Amendments, Changes and Corrections
- Applications Lapsed/Withdrawn
- Assignment, Transmittals and Transfers
- Cancellation of Entries in Register
- Extensions of Time
- Renewal of Registration
- Official Notices
The Australian Official Journal of Designs can be accessed at the following URL:
http://pericles.ipaustralia.gov.au/ols/epublish/content/olsDesignPDFs.jsp
The Australian Designs Data Searching (ADDS) system can be accessed at the following URL:
http://pericles.ipaustralia.gov.au/adds2/adds.adds_start.intro
Mass storage media and microforms used
The Office's Designs bibliographic data and images are maintained on a Pega system and Oracle database.
Australian registered designs are published in the Australian Official Journal of Designs and on microfiche (historical from 1906 to 30 September 1998).
Bibliographic data and images for registered designs post 1985 are also available on the Australian Designs Data Search (ADDS) system on the internet.
IP Australia has begun work on a new searching tool as part of the RIO program. Australian Design Search will replace the current Australian Designs Data Searching (ADDS) system over the next 12 months.
The engagement and development approach will be consistent with the approach taken for Australian Trade Mark Search. Engagement will include continuing face-to-face consultation with attorneys and search professionals and an email subscription list for future updates and access to early versions of the system in the future for feedback.
Our delivery partner, TrademarkVision, are exploring the applicability of their image recognition technology to designs. A prototype demonstrating this exploratory work is available on the IP Australia Australian Design Search Project webpage https://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/beta/australian-design-search-project.
Databases and office automation
Current standard desktop software includes Microsoft Windows 7 with Microsoft Office 2010.
The Office's publication system produces:
- camera ready copy of the Australian Official Journal of Designs;
- design certificates and original register entries; and
- notices for design applicants or their agents.
Bibliographic data and processing
Bibliographic data is maintained on a Sun Solaris and Oracle RDBMS mid-range platform.
Australian Designs Data Searching (ADDS)
ADDS allows you to search for both design applications and registered designs based on a wide range of data fields. All data published in the Australian Official Journal of Designs can be searched on ADDS.
Representations of registered designs are available online from design registration number 90000 to current. The ADDS data includes all applications and registrations from 1986 and all registrations captured from 1973 to 1985 that were still active in 1985. No information exists prior to June 1972.
Legal status information (kind of information, coverage, medium, etc.)
See "In House Systems" and "Australian Designs Data Searching (ADDS)"
IV. ICT SUPPORT TO SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE
In-house systems (online/offline)
Designs bibliographic data and representations [images] for registrations from 1985 can be searched through a web browser application (ADDS – Australian Designs Data Searching). The Official Journal of Designs is also searchable over the Internet for data from July 2001.
External databases
Disclosures relating to other designs filings/registrations of other countries are accessed via relevant Internet databases and search facilities.
Hardware used to supporting business processes of the Office
Equipment used (hardware, including the types of terminal and network used, and software), carriers used
IP Australia’s head Office has an Ethernet-based LAN providing high speed bandwidth for each user desktop connection. A DMZ-based, ASD approved firewall using IAN ports (Internet IEFT Assigned Numbers) provides the secure means to allow access from internal systems/users to external entities such as the Internet or public/private organisations.
IP Australia's Home Based Workers and Out-posted Workers supplied with IPA hardware connect using Windows machines with Citrix Receiver – they have access to a Virtual Desktop that is supplied using Citrix XenDesktop. They also have the option to use published applications provided by Citrix XenApp. All of the Citrix infrastructure runs on VMWare vSphere sitting on Dell x86 Hardware. Users connecting using their own hardware may use a variety of devices, however, they still have access to a Virtual Desktop that is supplied using Citrix XenDesktop and have the option to use published applications provided by Citrix XenApp.
The current SOE includes Windows 7 with Office 2010 Professional Plus, IE 11 and Microsoft Outlook.
Internal databases: coverage, updates, interlinks with external sources
The administration and examination of Designs IP applications is supported by the recently released Designs component of the Rights in One business system. This system comprises five main components:
- Business Process Management on the Pega Platform (hosted on JBOSS Windows and Oracle SPARC servers);
- Party data on the Informatica Master Data Management Platform (hosted on JBOSS and Oracle SPARC servers);
- IP Rights Data Service an in-house Java application (hosted on JBOSS and Oracle SPARC servers);
- Electronic Document Management on the Objective EDMS Platform (hosted on JBOSS and Oracle servers);
- Outbound Correspondence using Intalio BPM and DROOLS BPR software (hosted on SPARC servers).
All processing relating to the life-cycle of a design (apart from financial processing) is conducted within this environment.
File building
The Designs Office maintains and updates a search file system (ADDS) using information from the above mentioned Designs in RIO application, previously registered designs in Australia and maintains a store of current local and international publications.
Updating
Search files are regularly updated as appropriate.
See "In-house Systems" and "Information products…"
V. PROMOTION ACTIVITIES AIMED TO SUPPORT USERS IN ACCESS AND EFFICIENT USE OF INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION
Collection management, preservation
All Australian Designs records/documents are handled in accordance with Office procedures set down under Australian Law and archiving practices.
Information services available to the public (including computerized services and search files contained in libraries remote from your Office and patent information posted by your Office on the World Wide Web)
Information services are available on the IP Australia website.
http://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/
IP Australia provides useful links and topics on a wide range of information related to intellectual property via IP Australia’s website. http://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/
‘Protect your creativity’ is a printed publication aimed at designers to understand the basics of IP. It has been designed to provide general information on how to protect their creative business and focuses on design rights.
In 2017 we continued to develop our commercialisation content and enhanced our enforcement content to include IP mediation. IP Australia established an intellectual property (IP) Mediation Referral Service for IP right holders to access mediation providers as a low cost and effective alternative to resolve IP related disputes.
Cooperation with universities, technology and innovation support centers, etc.
Exporters
To support the relationship with the Export Council of Australia, IP Australia developed a range of international fact sheets available online to assist Australian businesses when approaching a global market.
The suite includes China, Canada, India, Indonesia, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, European Union and the USA. The fact sheets were reviewed and graphically refreshed in 2017 to ensure their ongoing value.
Our partnership with the Export Council of Australia continues in 2017 and our body of work involves collaborating on a range of content including web and various publications and communication activities, cross-promotion through digital channels (in particular social media channels) and support of events, programs and speaking opportunities, to assist Australian businesses when exporting.
Accountants:
IP Australia has continued to team up with CPA Australia, an accounting body with more than 150 000 members, to deliver tailored information campaign to help accountants understand the benefits of identifying and protecting IP assets.
A focus for 2017 was to encourage accountants to have conversations with their clients around registered business names and trade marks.
Indigenous:
Work that supports engagement with the indigenous business community is continuing. IP Australia is continuing to support the production of a documentary titled ‘Clever Country’. The documentary will feature indigenous innovation throughout history and is expected to air in Australia and selected overseas countries in 2019. This initiative is expected to encourage both indigenous and non-indigenous people to better understand the important role intellectual property play in innovation.
SMEs:
Partnerships with four incubation hubs continued in 2017/18. The partnerships focused on collaborating on a range of content including web and various publications and communication activities, cross-promotion through digital channels (in particular social media channels) and support of events, programs and speaking opportunities, to assist Australian start-up businesses. The 2017/18 incubation hub partnership is currently being evaluated and we are reviewing how to maximise these partnerships in the future.
In mid-2017 a formal webinar program was established. Throughout the five month period from August to December 2017, IP Australia held 10 webinars aimed at educating start-ups and SMEs about IP. 251 people attended the webinars and we received very positive feedback. Webinars were held on IP basics, as well as three IP rights: patents, trade marks and designs. Each webinar was delivered on a rotational basis in partnership with patent, trade mark and designs examiners within IP Australia. In addition to the IP rights webinars, a guest webinar was hosted by IP Australia’s IP Counsellor to China, David Bennett in November.
Continues to have an active presence at large scale start-up events across Australia, including:
- Tech23 is a long-standing event showcasing world-class starts ups from around Australia. It is an excellent opportunity for IP Australian to educate and promote the value of IP to a large number of people within the Australian business community.
- StartCon, a two-day start-up conference, which brings together entrepreneurs, growth hackers, marketers, and investors. We received feedback from the Australian business community that we should engage in more face-to-face activities and StartCon 2017 was a great opportunity to achieve this.
- Pause fest, one of Australia’s premier creative, tech and business events in 2017. It was here that we launched our new Australian Trade Mark Search system.
Universities
As part of IP Australia’s University Research and Commercialisation Plan, a number of initiatives have been identified to increase IP education and awareness within the higher education sector.
In 2017 IP Australia co-hosted Protect, publish, engage: stories about collaboration and commercialisation, with the Australian National University (ANU). There were 74 attendees at the event from the academic, business, start-up and IP community. The speaker line-up included two esteemed local researchers, a commercialisation expert, and IP Australia’s own patent specialist.
Representatives from IP Australia also participated in smaller workshops with a number of universities, for both students and research staff.
Secondary Students
IP Australia has partnered with Questacon, National Youth Science Forum and the CSIRO to deliver intellectual property workshops to talented and emerging young entrepreneurs.
The Questacon and IP Australia partnership provides an opportunity through the National Questacon Invention Convention (NQIC) to engage with high school students aged 14 to 18 who have demonstrated an interest in inventorship, innovation and entrepreneurship. These students are likely to pursue tertiary STEM qualifications and are encouraged to forge a career within the STEM fields.
IP Australia partnered with the National Youth Science Forum (NYSF) in 2017. The partnership provided an opportunity to engage with Year 12 students who had demonstrated their passion and talent for STEM and to help share their experiences back to their local communities. These young Australians were introduced to intellectual property concepts, with selected groups invited to further explore the role of patent examiners within the intellectual property system.
The BHP Billiton Science & Engineering Awards, organised by CSIRO, are Australia’s most prestigious school science awards. This opportunity allows IP Australia to engage with 26 STEM orientated national student finalists. IP Australia was approached by CSIRO to participate in this event in 2016 and 2017 and voluntarily contributed our expertise to the program without providing funding through a formal partnership arrangement.
Education and training: training courses, e learning modules (URLs), seminars, exhibitions, etc.
Good Design Awards
In 2017 we continued our partnership with the Australian Good Design Awards. The partnership and ‘protect your creativity’ campaign promoted the value in securing IP design rights by engaging with prospective filers such as designers, start-ups and small businesses.
IP Stakeholders Forum (IPSF)
The IP Stakeholders Forum is the principal forum for consultation, discussion and information exchange on IP matters that relate to IP stakeholders. A key role of the forum is to validate IP Australia’s self-assessments under the Regulatory Performance framework. During 2017 two IP Stakeholders Forums were held in Sydney.
Attorney Roundtable
In July 2017 IP Australia hosted a roundtable discussion with selected Sydney based attorneys. The roundtable was an opportunity to discuss the latest policy and program initiatives at IP Australia, and for attorneys to ask questions and provide feedback.
Other forums
IPBC
IP Australia partnered with the Intellectual Property Business Congress (IPBC) to deliver their Australasian conference in November 2017. The event was attended by over a hundred IP decision makers from across Australia, to discuss how IP owners can strategically use IP as a business asset.
IPTA / AIPPI
IP Australia was involved in leading attorney events and conferences, including IPTA and AIPPI, where our Director General participated as a speaker and panellist.
IP Summit
To commence in 2018, the IP Summit will be an annual event which draws together attendees from industry, academia, the IP profession and government to discuss and share information on IP issues of strategic importance. The first IP Summit was held in Sydney on 1 May 2018 and in Melbourne on 8 May 2018. With speakers across industry and government IP Australia engaged with small business and emphasised the importance of IP.
IP Australia’ website
The IP Australia website (www.ipaustralia.gov.au) has 3.8 million unique visits per annum and is the front door to IP Australia’s digital information and service transactions. It plays a critical role in educating and supporting our customers and facilitating transactions with the agency.
IP Toolkit
After a public consultation period the IP Toolkit was updated in 2017. The updated IP Toolkit is more interactive, user-friendly and accessible. The content has been streamlined, with a stronger focus on IP matters, and a new section dealing with IP Management Scenarios provides more detailed information on how the contract and term sheet templates can assist in collaboration projects.
The toolkit includes:
- a collaboration checklist covering the key issues that need to be considered
- contract, confidentiality agreement and term sheet templates
- guidance and information to help collaborating parties manage their IP.
The Department of Industry, Innovation and Science (DIIS) and IP Australia jointly developed the IP Toolkit.
Social Media
Social media allows IP Australia to enhance our corporate reputation and interact with our key stakeholders and react to situations in a timely and transparent manner.
As part of our continued efforts to improve and increase IP Australia’s presence on social media channels, consistent with the IP Australia External Communication Strategy 2015-2018, we are undertaking a series of online advertising campaigns through the Government’s dedicated media and advertising agency, Mitchell AdCorp to help educate the public on awareness of IP rights.
Our agency has added value to customer communication with its active social media presence. With 5 social media accounts and over 17,400 followers collectively to date, our agency continues to see an increase in online engagement and building more meaningful relationships with customers, influencers and other relevant stakeholders.
Online Services (eServices) and B2B
IP Australia’s eServices and B2B channels are the agency’s customer electronic lodgement platforms:
- Online Services (eServices) is IP Australia’s web-based self-service portal that is widely used by private applicants, small – medium businesses and attorney firms. This portal caters for every service request type available across Trade Marks, Designs, Patents and Plant Breeder’s Rights.
There are currently over 175,000 registered eServices users.
- B2B (business-to-business) is an MFT file transfer product IP Australia supports for high-volume customers; enabling the direct transmission of large numbers of service requests directly into IP Australia’s internal systems. B2B caters for the majority of service request types available across Trade Marks, Designs, Patents and Plant Breeder’s Rights.
There are currently 16 customers that have integrated the B2B software into their case management network.
Since the release of these platforms in 2013, IP Australia’s customer base has significantly changed its lodgement behaviour. There is currently a 99.6% uptake of the digital platforms.
In direct response to customer feedback the work flow from Online Services (eServices) to the systems used to publish Design images have been reviewed. Enhancements to reduce image manipulation and degradation of representations were identified.
Here is an overview of the findings and enhancements:
- The speed Online Services (eServices) processes representations and the image quality does not meet the expectations of customers, IP Australia's Designs examiners and external users.
- Representations provided would time outs after 5 minutes.
- Representations greater than 150dpi could not be displayed.
- Adding a temporary location and reducing the size of archive folders decreased the processing times by more than 50%.
- Modifications to the uploading processes increased the image quality displayed from 150 dpi to 300dpi.
Further improvements to reduce image manipulation and degradation of representations are already underway and will be deployed progressively.
Electronic Correspondence
The release of electronic correspondence represented a first for the agency and assisted us to further streamline our processes and reduce our reliance on physical resources such as paper. 92% of correspondence (including IP Right certificates) is delivered to customers by way of either the Online Services (eServices) or B2B account.
Ask Alex: IP Australia’s Virtual Assistant
Launched in early 2016, IP Australia’s multi-award winning Virtual Assistant ‘Alex’ is available 24/7 across a number of electronic platforms (primarily our corporate website) to answer general customer queries concerning IP Rights. Virtual Assistants play an integral role in the provision of general information in response to customer queries concerning the products and services of the agency.
Following successful results in her pilot trade mark phase, Alex’s knowledgebase was enhanced enabling her to assist customers with their patents, PBRs and designs queries. Using the latest Virtual Assistant technology available to us, Alex will continue to learn and expand her knowledgebase. The more customers continue to interact and ask her questions, the more Alex will learn and develop.
We are continually improving Alex to ensure she remains a valuable customer service tool. Here is an overview of some of her Key achievements and enhancements:
- Over 95,000 customer interactions with the Virtual Assistant.
- Livechat – Alex can offer customers the option of being transferred to a live agent to continue their conversation for more complex queries (during the agency’s hours of operation).
- Alex Coach – If an irregular or highly complex query cannot be resolved by Alex in the first instance, the query is automatically sent (during the agency’s hours of operation only) to a ‘hidden’ agent for a response. Using machine learning software, the system will search through existing content on IP Australia’s website to aid the ‘hidden agent’ by providing suggested responses which can be sent back to the customer in a timely manner.
Alex can be found on the agency’s corporate website and also on IP Australia’s Facebook page and the above mentioned Portfolio View beta site.
VI.INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION ACTIVITIES IN THE FIELD OF INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION
International or regional cooperation in the exchange of industrial design information, e.g., in the form of official gazettes
Largely restricted to the Official Journal which is available on-line.
Assistance to developing countries
VII. OTHER RELATED MATTERS
URLs of web pages of the Office’s website that:
Provide information on legislation related to industrial designs
Designs Act: http://www.comlaw.gov.au/comlaw/management.nsf/lookupindexpagesbyid/IP200401901?OpenDocument
Designs Regulations: http://www.comlaw.gov.au/ComLaw/Management.nsf/current/bytitle/5654A5E61547B81BCA256F710006C911?OpenDocument&mostrecent=1
Intellectual Property Laws Amendment (Raising the Bar) Act 2012
http://www.comlaw.gov.au/Details/C2012A00035
Contain the Annual Report of the Office
Annual Report
https://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/about-us/data-and-research/australian-ip-report
Contain industrial design-related news regarding the Office
Latest news:
Latest news is featured on the home page of IP Australia's website:
http://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/
Subscription-based mailing lists
https://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/about-us/news-and-community/stay-informed
Other relevant matters
The Australian Design IP system provides for 2 types of applications:
- Application for registration to obtain rights in the design
- Application for publication of a design which provides no rights in respect of the design. Publication excludes others from obtaining a valid registration for the same design.
All applications are assessed against a Formality check prior to Registration or Publication.
Once registered, the owner has a range of rights including the right to use, license and assign the design. However, the right to enforce and prevent others from using, selling or importing the design can only be commenced once the design has been examined and a certificate of examination has issued.