To round off the research phase of the IP Australia Designs Review, some ‘short-term wins’ are due (fingers crossed) to hit Parliament in late 2020.
GRACE PERIOD
The introduction of a ‘grace period’ (hooray!) will allow a protected period from the initial release date, including appearance online, on social media, in print media, or publicly exhibited. Whilst the length of this initial protection is yet to be formalised, we strongly advocated for a minimum of 12 months, in line with 100+ Australian trading partners.
REGISTERING PARTIAL DESIGNS
This offers the ability to register ‘partial designs’ – a chair leg, a distinctive detail, a piece of hardware, or even the mesh detail used on seating or screening. We were very vocal about this point – a mechanism that not only further protects complete designs but also extends commercialisation potential for many future products.
READ THE FOUR REPORTS, RESEARCH LINKS & OUR FEEDBACK FROM THINK TANKS & ROUNDTABLE SESSIONS
DEFINING DESIGN released in December 2019 – READ
Read our earlier post on our consultation to the IP Australia Stakeholder forum in December here.
Read TALKING DESIGN, released February 2020
Read the full economic research report – The Impact of Design Rights on Australian Firms
Swinburne College was commissioned to undertake specific economic research – read PROTECTING DESIGNS.
“Design-related industries contribute approximately AU$67.5 billion per annum to the Australian economy – or 3.5% of GDP.
Yet less than 0.5% of Australian businesses have held a design right (registration / trade mark / patent) in the last 16 years.”
SO, WHAT’S NEXT?
The next phase of the IP Australia review focuses on solutions, our focus for 2021.
This process looks at medium to long-term changes to the system – potentially as radical as binning the existing system and starting again. Also discussed is the potential for mediation vs courts for settling infringements.
Please contact us if you have specific questions or are keen to contribute to future public consultation.
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JOIN THE ADA® – HELP STOP DESIGN THEFT!
AUTHENTIC DESIGN ALLIANCE® Members directly enable our advocacy and education – please support our campaigns for Australian IP Reform for the design sector by joining the ADA®
Find out more HERE (desktop view) or HERE (device view)
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