Protecting what makes your product distinctive
The way a product looks can be one of its most commercially valuable assets.
FPA helps businesses protect the visual features that distinguish their products through registered design rights in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and international markets.
As a firm focused solely on patents and designs, we bring specialist intellectual property expertise to design protection – helping clients identify what should be protected, establish an effective filing strategy and manage their rights as products and markets evolve.
Strategic design protection
Effective design protection starts with understanding what makes a product distinctive, where it will be commercialised and how it may develop over time.
Design rights can protect visual features such as a product’s shape, configuration, pattern and ornamentation, although precisely what can be protected and the requirements for doing so vary between jurisdictions.
Timing can also be critical. Public disclosure, overseas filing plans and differences between national design systems can all affect the protection available.
We work with clients to develop design filing strategies that consider the product itself, its commercial importance and the markets in which protection is required.
Our designs services include:
- design protection and filing strategies
- preparation and filing of design applications
- national and international design registrations
- examination and certification
- design searching
- infringement searching and analysis
- competitor watching
- market and design-field monitoring
- portfolio management and strategic advice
Protection that considers the bigger picture
An effective design strategy is about more than registering an individual design.
A product may be launched in several markets, evolve through multiple versions or form part of a broader family of products. Different jurisdictions can also have significantly different requirements for obtaining and maintaining design protection.
We consider these issues when developing filing strategies, helping clients establish protection that reflects both their immediate priorities and where their products may go next.
This international perspective is particularly important for designs because design systems are less harmonised internationally than patent systems. The way an initial application is prepared can therefore have implications for subsequent overseas protection.
Understanding the competitive landscape
Design rights aren’t only relevant when seeking protection for your own products.
Before launching a new product, we can undertake infringement searching to identify existing registered designs and help assess potential risks. Where appropriate, we can also advise on the validity of existing registrations and options for designing around potentially blocking rights.
We can also monitor competitors, product categories and design activity across relevant markets, helping clients understand what others are protecting and identify developments within their competitive landscape.
Design protection across markets
For businesses operating internationally, design protection needs to account for both commercial priorities and differences between national design systems.
Our attorneys routinely advise on design rights in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, and can coordinate design protection in Southeast Asia and other international jurisdictions.
This provides clients with a central point of contact while ensuring the filing strategy accounts for the requirements of each relevant market.
Talk to our designs team
Whether you are preparing to launch a new product, expanding into new markets or managing an established design portfolio, we can help determine how best to protect the visual features that give your products their identity. Talk to our attorneys today.
