Chapter 4: Design rights

Product and service classes

In Australia, designs are classified using the Locarno Classification, comprised of 32 product categories.¹

Figure 4.4. lists the top classes for design right filings in 2024. Transport, which includes all vehicles, overtook recording, telecommunication or data processing equipment (broadly, computer equipment) to become the leading class of new design filings. Filings in this class grew by 9.0% in 2024, following a 20.5% increase in 2023. A key driver has been increased filings from China, including from electric vehicle manufacturers.

Transport was followed by furnishings – design filings in this class have increased in 2024 to 1.4 times their level in 2023. The growth is underpinned by an increase in furnishing filings from Hong Kong, which have increased to 3.2 times their level in 2023. Most (over 90%) of this increase in filings is due to a single company, Miss Amara Group Limited, now the lead design filer.

Relative to international filers, Australian resident filings are more heavily concentrated in tools and hardware (10.4% of resident filings vs. 4.1% of non-resident filings) and building units and construction elements (9.6% of resident filings vs. 2.2% of non-resident filings), reflective of the importance of local firms in construction.

Conversely, international filings are more heavily concentrated in recording, telecommunication or data processing equipment (8.9% of non-resident filings vs. 2.5% of resident filings) and medical and laboratory equipment (6.7% of non-resident filings vs 2.1% of resident filings).

Figure 4.4 Top 5 design classes for volume of design filings in 2024, and high-volume classes with the greatest relative growth and decline in 2024²

Focusing on ‘high volume’ classes, the strongest growth in design filings was in ‘machines not elsewhere specified’ – which predominantly includes home appliances. Applications in this class increased by 52.4%, to 477 in 2024. Filings have previously been highly concentrated amongst US and Australian applicants, but a near tripling of filings originating from China in 2024 now sees the country accounting for around 42% of class applications. 

Read next: Lead applicants for designs, and Australian filings abroad