Benefits of Design Registration

An industrial design can add value to a product.  It can make a product attractive and appealing to customers, and it may even be its unique selling point.  So protecting valuable designs should be a crucial part of the business strategy of any designer or manufacturer.

By protecting an industrial design through its registration, the owner obtains the exclusive right to prevent its unauthorised copying or imitation by others.  This makes commercial sense as it improves the competitiveness of a business and often brings in additional revenue in one or more of the following ways:

• Registration prevents a design from being copied and imitated by competitors, and thereby strengthens your competitive position.
• Registering a valuable design contributes to obtaining a fair return on investment profits as industrial designs are business assets that can increase the commercial value of a company and its products.  The more successful a design, the higher its value to the company.
• A registered design may also be licensed (or sold) to others for a fee.  By licensing it, you may be able to enter markets that you are otherwise unable to serve.
• Registration of industrial designs encourages fair competition and honest trade practices, which, in turn, promote the production of a diverse range of aesthetically attractive products.