How to obtain a design registration

Obtaining an effective design registration is a difficult process and our recommendation is to always consult a patent attorney to get them to do that work for you, whether that's us or another experienced attorney.​

We've included some general information on the design registration process below to give you an idea of the important stages of obtaining a design registration .

Design registration requirements?

A design must meet the following requirements for it to be registered and valid.

• ​Novel - a design must be novel. This means that the design must be new to the world.
• Not solely dictated by its function - the design cannot be purely functional, e.g. internal structure of transistor. If the product can only function with that particular design and there are no possible alternative functioning designs then it is likely to be a purely functional design and not able to be registered.
• Shape and configuration or pattern and ornamentation - the design must relate to the shape of the product or pattern or ornamentation.

Preparation

If your design appears to meet the requirements listed above then it's time to prepare the application.

In order to prepare the application you will need to provide clear line drawings of each side, top and bottom and perspective/isometric views. Ideally a 3D model can be provided. The drawings need to show the design and the article/thing that the design is applied to.

You will need to show additional drawings if the design can be shown in different configurations, e.g. opena nd closed states.

​You will also need to assess which design features are novel and commercially valuable and then rank them in order of importance. This process will help determine which features shown in the design drawings are shown as critical.

​It's important that you provide your attorney with full and detailed information about the design and product. This includes:

• how to make and use it.
• which features are the most commercially useful.
• which features are novel.
• the optimum form of the design as well as all possible alternatives you envisage are possible for each feature of the design.

Application

The application for the registered design can be made after the drawings have been fully prepared.

Your attorney will need the name, address and nationality details about the creators of the design and the person/company who will own the patent.

After application

The process and timing of events after making an application varies by country but typically involves:

Examination - in many countries designs are not granted automatically and are first examined to check that all the requirements have been met, this includes conducting prior art searching to determine if the design is novel.

Acceptance - once the application no longer faces any objections in the examination phase the intellectual property office will issue a notice accepting the design application.

Registration/Grant - once all requirements are met after acceptance the design will be registered.

Once you have a registered design

Once you have a registered design you can take action against anyone who infringes the design registration, i.e. if they are making, using or selling products with substantially the same visual appearance as the registered design

A registered design does not last forever. The term of a design varies by country but in NZ it is 15 years from filing, subject to payment of renewal fees at 5 and 10 years.

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