As you’re getting ready to launch a product, if you’ve spent any amount of time thinking about the way it looks, then it’s worth considering filing for a registered design application to protect it.
Design registrations are a valuable additional IP right that many people don’t realise is open to them, and can help present an attractive business prospect to potential investors, and act as a deterrent to competitors, and help protect your products from cheap online imitations. They can protect the visual appearance of your product for up to 10 years and are considerably cheaper to file than patent applications.
While patents protect the function of a device, a design registration protects the look of it: the ‘shape and configuration’. The chair you’re sitting in reading this is likely too common-place to be patented – its functions are all well understood and common-knowledge – but it would be the perfect candidate for a design registration.
What other potential design rights are you sitting on in your business? Have a think about it and contact us at mdp Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys if you want to talk about how to get the most IP protection for your new product or business activities.
Contact mdp Patents & Trade Mark Attorneys. Tel: (03) 0620 9660
