Partnering with clients to provide on-demand contract lawyers, giving in-house legal teams the confidence to be agile.
We recognise the significant value that registered designs bring to our clients’ balance sheets and have built a first class team of lawyers with proven technical expertise.
MinterEllison’s lawyers provide superior, practical advice and skilled handling of complex litigation for local and international clients. We advise on the registration of designs under the Designs Act 2003 (Cth), and act in enforcement proceedings and in defending infringement proceedings in the Federal Court of Australia.
We have acted in disputes over the degree of similarity between alleged infringing products and registered designs, and in disputes over the extent to which a design is reasonably clear and succinct enough to be registered.
A recent decision in the Full Federal Court has shown that while manufacturers are generally free to make goods according to a design that is not registered, care must be taken to ensure that those products are branded in a way that distinguishes them from the market leader.