Global protection
Australian design registration provides protection only within Australia. If you want to apply for registration in other countries, you also need to apply for design registration in those countries. You can apply for a design in a foreign country in two ways:
Make a new application in each foreign country as if you were making an application for your design for the first time – i.e. a national application; or
Make a new application in each foreign country within 6 months of your Australian application – i.e. a national (Paris) Convention application.
Australia is a party to the Paris Convention, the International Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property. (There are 100 member countries, including all major industrial countries). Under this convention the filing date of an Australian design application can usually be used to establish priority for corresponding design applications made overseas, if done within 6 months of filing the Australian application.
How can the right be assigned?
In Australia the registered owner may assign all or part or their interest in the design in writing in a signed document under s11 Designs Act 2003.
You can assign your design rights when you sell your IP. The value of these rights is a commercial agreement based largely on the intellectual property of the creation or invention.
For further information on Designs, please visit Maxwells website or, next, learn about Copyright.