Management
Issue No. 39 - February/March 2008
Guarded success - IP protection tips
IP Australia toured the country recently to celebrate Australia’s centenary of design protection.
Registering a design is a two-stage process. First you apply ($200) then you seek formal registration ($360) within six months. If you’re successful you have the right to take legal action against anyone copying your design.
What’s the good of that? While not as comprehensive as a patent, design protection is cheaper and can be more efficient.
Paul Blewett, Group Legal Counsel for Hills Industries, gave the local angle at the Roadshow and offered a useful set of pros and cons.
Displaying brand identities from Hills Industries’ 20-odd business units, Paul says they generate a great deal of IP which “has to be aesthetically applealing and capable of being manufactured efficiently”.
A lot of design effort goes in before protection becomes an issue.
Paul cautions that design protection can’t make a dud product great. It can’t add a premium to the price; it can’t automatically stop copiers and the protection doesn’t come cheap if you have a lot to protect.
A prolific design manufacturer has to evaluate what to protect and what not to protect.
Merely applying offers some protection. Design protection is more expensive and calls for more due diligence.
“Copiers are getting cleverer – they are not producing blatant ripoffs,” Paul says, referring to Asian mass producers.
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