Home DesignsBefore
you apply
Before you apply
Do not disclose your IP too soon!
You do not have to register your design to use it.
However, if you disclose it in public before you have filed an
application (and due to the application, established a priority date), it will not be considered
new and you will not be able to register the design.
Before you apply, consider whether your design is eligible for registration.
Is my design eligible for registration?
Your design must be new and distinctive to be registered.
- 'New' means a design has not been publicly used in Australia or published in a document anywhere
in the world before the priority date.
- 'Distinctive' means your design is not substantially similar in overall impression to any design
in the prior art base.
Before you apply, IP Australia recommends you conduct a search of existing registered
designs. If your design is not new and distinctive you may not be able to get
registration, or your registration may be of no value. You may also face legal
action if you infringe the design rights of the owners of other similar designs.
Patent
attorneys and professional searching firms can assist you with searching
and applying to register or publish your design.
When an examiner decides whether a design registration is new and distinctive,
emphasis is placed upon any similarities that it shares with any designs in
the prior art base.
You may not register a design featuring:
- medals;
- information or graphics which might reasonably regarded as scandalous
material;
- anything that includes the word 'Anzac';
- coins or notes of a kind prohibited under the Coins Currency Act 1991;
- layout for an integrated circuit;
- the Olympic rings symbol, the Olympic motto (both in Latin 'citius,
altius, fortius' and in English 'faster, higher, stronger'); the torch and flames
design proscribed under the Olympic Insignia Protection Act;
- a representation of Queen Elizabeth II or any member of the Royal Family;
or
- certain coats of arms, armorial bearings, flags and emblems.
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