Fundamental to any understanding of the law of registered designs is to understand what a design is, how designs relate to products and what visual features are protected.

It is essential to understand what may be registered, how long the registration lasts and rights granted by the registration of a design. Finally, critical to the validity of a registered design is the concept of the priority date against which the tests of registrability are assessed.

See General.

To understand the application process, one must understand who may apply to obtain a registered design, how the application is made and the process that is followed within IP Australia when assessing the application at first instance.

See Application for registration of a design.

The rights conferred by a registered design can only be enforced once the design has been examined and certified.

See Examination.

The enforcement of registered design rights requires an understanding of when the rights are infringed and how to bring an application for infringement (and when it is not possible to do so).

The owner of the registered design should understand the limits on the relief that they may be entitled to if they can prove infringement and they should also understand the consequences of making unjustified threats of legal proceedings.

See Enforcement of registered design rights.

To understand how a registered design may be revoked and the grounds on which a registered design may be revoked, see Revocation of a registered design.

To understand how a registered design may be assigned, see Assignment of registered designs.