Alert: Significant Changes To Canadian Design Law Expected In 2016

Superior visual aesthetics are an important competitive advantage in many market sectors, including fashion, housewares and consumer electronics.

Intellectual property protection has long been available for visual aesthetics, under names such as design patent and design registration; however, it has been cumbersome and expensive to pursue and maintain in multiple jurisdictions. Conventionally, countries have had their own substantive and procedural design regimes, with little harmonization between them. For example, design representations (photographs, line drawings, CAD renderings) required for registration in one jurisdiction might be completely unacceptable in another, thus requiring duplication of effort and expense.