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ARTICLE · 06 APRIL 2004

New Dawn for Australia’s Registered Designs Laws

Clayton Utz
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A new day is finally about to dawn for Australia’s registered design laws. After a lengthy period of gestation, the Australian parliament has finally passed new legislation regarding the registration of industrial designs. (Industrial designs protect visual features of shape, configuration, pattern or ornamentation applied to manufactured products.)

AustraliaAntitrust/Competition Law
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By Wayne Condon and Richard Hoad

A new day is finally about to dawn for Australia’s registered design laws. After a lengthy period of gestation, the Australian parliament has finally passed new legislation regarding the registration of industrial designs. (Industrial designs protect visual features of shape, configuration, pattern or ornamentation applied to manufactured products.) With effect from 17 June 2004 (or such earlier date as may be proclaimed by the Australian parliament beforehand), the Designs Act 2003 (Cth) will repeal and replace the existing Designs Act 1906 (Cth).

When the new legislation comes into force, Australia’s designs laws will be radically altered. The existing Designs Act has been strongly criticised by industry for many years. In particular, following a number of failed infringement proceedings in Australian courts, there has been widespread industry concern that it is too easy to avoid infringing a registered design. The conventional wisdom has been that

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