The Design Indaba Expo that Capetonians flocked to over the
period 2- 4 March 2012 showed that product design is alive and well
in South Africa, although - somewhat predictably in a low-tech
economy - all the action appears to be in "soft" areas
like clothing, jewellery and furnishings: not a single car, cell
phone or TV - sexy or gross - was to be seen. The Expo did put a
rare spotlight on the legal protection available to product shapes.
The easiest and most obvious form of protection for product shape
is that poor, neglected stepchild of IP, the registered design -
not a lot of people know this, but it's possible (cheap and
easy too!) to get a design registration for a product shape
that's new (as in novel), and this gives the owner monopoly
protection for 15 years in the case of an aesthetic design, and 10
years in the case of a functional design.
