24 Sep 2019 1:00pm - 2:00pm

Designing for the Future: Design and Intellectual Property in Australia

Ms Beata Khaidurova and Ms Ramila Clugston will be presenting this Webinar

Synopsis

Great design is a core part of innovation: it envisions, defines, and informs how we interact with our environment – real and digital. Design is also a source of intangible value and is essential to building market acceptance for new technologies, products and services. The Australian registered design system aims to be an important tool for supporting designers, adding value to their products and supporting them along the path to commercialisation. Design rights applications filed worldwide have doubled since 2005 reflecting an increasingly significant contribution to knowledge-based economies.

Despite this, designs registration tends to be underutilised and less well understood than other intellectual property regimes, such as patent, trade mark and copyright protection. In particular, the Australian registered designs system differs from other design protection schemes worldwide and is quite different to the Australian patent system. Registered designs are handled by patent attorneys who are specialists in patent practice, but not designs practice, so the unique nature of the registered designs system can lead to confusion from patent practitioners and their clients.

Building on recent reviews of the registered designs system in Australia, IP Australia has begun a holistic review of the design economy. IP Australia wants to better understand what drives design innovation and what changes may be needed to realise greater benefits to the Australian economy. The first stage of the Review being undertaken by IP Australia is a research phase, addressing key evidentiary gaps on the value and uses of the design rights regime. This research involves a 12-month phase of qualitative, desktop and quantitative empirical research. Findings from the research phase will be shared with the public and used to facilitate discussions with interested stakeholders in order to test our findings and inform pathways to further Australian design innovation and commercialisation.

This presentation will discuss the current state of the system of registered designs in Australia. The presentation will also discuss some of the preliminary findings from the research, as well some of the other designs initiatives currently being undertaken by IP Australia.