Industrial design rights
Industrial design rights are
intellectual property rights that protect the visual design of objects that are not purely utilitarian. An
industrial design consists of the creation of a shape, configuration or composition of pattern or color, or combination of pattern and color in three dimensional form containing aesthetic value. An industrial design can be a two- or three-dimensional pattern used to produce a product, industrial commodity or handicraft. Under the
Hague Agreement Concerning the International Deposit of Industrial Designs, a
WIPO-administered treaty, a procedure for an international registration exists. An applicant can file for a single international deposit with WIPO or with the national office in a country party to the treaty. The design will then be protected in as many member countries of the treaty as desired. Design rights started in England in
1787 with the
Designing and Printing of Linen Act and have expanded from there.
Canada's industrial design act affords ten years of protection to industrial designs that are registered, there is no protection if the design is not registered. The
Industrial Design Act (R.S., c. I-8) defines "design" or "industrial design" to mean
features of shape, configuration, pattern or ornament and any combination of those features that, in a finished article, appeal to and are judged solely by the eye.During the existence of an exclusive right, no person can "make, import for the purpose of trade or business, or sell, rent, or offer or expose for sale or rent, any article in respect of which the design is registered." The rule also applies to kits and substantial differences are in reference to previously published designs.
Article 1 of the
Japanese
Design Law states: "This law was designed to protect and utilize designs and to encourage creation of designs in order to contribute to industrial development". The protection period in Japan is 15 years from the day the application for protection was filed.
* Brian W. Gray & Effie Bouzalas, editors,
Industrial Design Rights: An International Perspective (Kluwer Law International: The Hague, 2001) ISBN 90-411-9684-6
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Design patent (US patent law)
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EU Directive on the legal protection of designs (Community design law)
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Geschmacksmuster (German design law)
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Open design*
Utility model*
Industrial Design Act (Canada) ( R.S.C. 1985, c. I-9 )
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Information about industrial design rights on the UK Patent Office web site*
International Designs on the WIPO web site
