Registered Designs
Design Registrations
With our apologies to Dieter Rams: Good design takes time, good design is worth the effort, and good design is worth protecting.
Design Patents (in Australia and New Zealand, called Registered Designs) protect the appearance of new products. We have deep experience protecting fashion, furniture, consumer products, GUIs, and other good designs.
Publishing your own good design before you apply for a registered design can destroy your registered design protection in many countries, including Australia and New Zealand. Keep your design secret from everyone else except your patent attorney until the day you apply for design registration.
Design patent Searches
Even if you design a completely original product, sometimes it emerges from the process looking too similar to another one protected by an existing registered design. We have decades of experience assessing designs in comparison with those on the Register of Designs in Australia and New Zealand, and can assess your risk of infringing another person’s registered design.
registered design Infringement Advice
If you think someone is infringing your registered design, or if you want to know whether your product is infringing a registered design, we can conduct infringement assessment and provide advice with respect to design workarounds, design patent validity assessments and design patent litigation support.