A Guide to Industrial Designs

An application for an industrial design will be considered abandoned if the applicant fails to reply within the specified time to any report which sets out objections to registration.

The formal request for an industrial design. The application has three basic elements: the application form, at least one drawing or photograph of the design, and the fees.

The transfer of design rights from the owner to another party.

The date your completed application is officially received at the Industrial Design Office.

The federal government agency responsible for industrial designs and other forms of intellectual property, including patents, trade-marks, copyrights and integrated circuit topographies.

Official confirmation that your design has been registered.

Convention priority applies in countries (including Canada) that have signed an international treaty called the Paris Convetion. It is a protocol that gives an applicant six months from the filing date in one country to subsequently file an application in another country such that the subsequent application is considered as if it had been filed on the earlier date.

Protection for artistic, dramatic, musical or literary works (including computer programs), and three other subject-matter known as: performances, sound recordings and communication signals.

Formal statement that you are the proprietor (see definition) of the design and that, to your knowledge, no one else was using the design when you created it.

A description is a basic requirement of an application for an industrial design. It identifies the features of shape, configuration, pattern or ornament that comprise the design, and indicates whether the design resides in the entire article or a portion.

Drawings and photographs disclose the industrial design and are a basic requirement of a design application.

The process through which the Industrial Design Office determines whether a design warrants registration. The main objective is to determine that the design is indeed design subject-matter, that it is original and that the documentation meets the requirements of the Act and Regulations.

The visual features of shape, configuration, pattern or ornament (or any combination of these features), applied to a finished article of manufacture.

Federal legislation governing registration and ownership of industrial designs in Canada.

The office within the Canadian Intellectual Property Office responsible for the registration of industrial designs.

Violation of industrial design rights through unauthorized use of a design.

The granting from the owner of a design to another party of certain rights related to the design. This may include such things as the right to use, manufacture and sell the design.

Fee required in order to maintain the rights to an industrial design for a second five-year period.

Signalling that a design is registered by placing a capital "D" in a circle — along with the name, or abbreviation thereof, of the design's proprietor on the object to which the design has been applied, or to its label or packaging.

An international treaty on intellectual property signed by some 168 nations, including Canada.

Covers new inventions (process, machine, manufacture, composition of matter), or any new and useful improvement of an existing invention.

The proprietor of an industrial design is the owner of the design. This can be the person who created it or who paid to have it created or who bought the design rights from the owner.

Publication of a design is the act of making it public or available for commercial sale or use anywhere in the world.

The granting of exclusive rights in an industrial design by the Industrial Design Office. This provides protection against imitation and unauthorized use of the design effective from the date of registration.

A person in Canada appointed by the applicant to receive documents on his/her behalf if the applicant has no place of business in Canada.

The act of searching through registered and published designs to verify whether a design is original or whether it has been published for more than one year.

A word, symbol or design (or a combination of these), used to distinguish the wares or services of one person or organization from those of others in the marketplace.