IPA design product--overview — IP Australia Designs Examiners' Manual – 10.1. Product: overview

Key legislation in this topic: Designs Act: ss 5 , 6 , 8 , 22 (1)(b), 39 (2)(b), 40 (2)(b) Key related topics: Identifying the design , Classification , Examination and certification To be registered, a design must be applied to a product. Section 6 defines a product as: a thing that is manufactured or hand made a (separately made) component part of a complex product a thing that has one or more indefinite dimensions an assembled set or kit . Under the Designs Act, a reference to a design is a reference to a design in relation to a product (s 8 ). A design in relation to a product means the overall appearance of the product resulting from one or more visual features of the product (s 5 ). A product is the tangible thing to which the design is applied. The design comprises the visual features that produce the overall appearance of that thing. The function, purpose or intended use of a thing is not itself a product. The product name should instead identify, in generic terms, the thing to which the design is applied. A product must have material form. An intangible item, concept or visual effect that is not embodied in a manufactured or hand made thing is not, by itself, a product. See Examples: things that are / are not products for examples of what are, and are not, considered to be products that meet s 6.