Industrial Design

Scope Of Services

We offer a full stream of services to prepare and file industrial design applications not only in Canada, but in most countries around the world.

 

What Is An Industrial Design Registration?

In some countries, such as the United States, Industrial Design registration is referred to instead as Design patent grant.

Industrial design registration is geared toward protecting an industrially produced object in terms of any of:

shape, ornamentation, or configuration.

For shape, think about how an object appears overall to the human eye.

For ornamentation, think about how an object is decorated or adorned.

For configuration, think about where one aspect is positioned relative to another.

All three of these aspects are highly related and sometimes confusing to convincingly separate.

Unlike “utility” patents that are directed toward protecting function, design registrations are directed toward protecting appearance.

 

How Long Can Protection Last?

An industrial design registration in Canada can last as long as ten years maximum, being divided into two five-year periods and subject to a Government fee.

In certain instances however, industrial design rights can partially morph and transform into trademark rights.

Such a distinction requires significant commercial investment and success in order to receive such commercial recognition.

In instances where design rights expand into and include trademark rights, such designs are theoretically subject to perpetual protection (subject to fees and conditions).

 

What’s Needed To Start?

Designs are usually conceived by drawings and diagrams, but we can work with real world models and simulations as well.

Design registration ultimately requires the filing of formal black ink drawings, revealing certain perspectives and detail in prescribed formats.

We can work with hand-drawn renditions and sketches, no matter how rough your initial conception is.

We can also work with sophisticated illustrative software formats of almost any computer-aided design (CAD) format, including .STEP format.

Our illustrators use cutting edge technology to transform both ideas and real-world examples into informative formal black-ink informative-art works.

 

How Long Does It Take?

Timelines depend on how much information a client has to begin with.

The closer a client is to real-world production, usually the more information we have to work with.

Where clients successfully build models and prototypes but lack drawings, we can help fill in the gaps.

As such, getting to an initial filing can take time based on what a client can already produce.

Once formal black ink drawings are produced and finalized, filing a first application can happen usually in twenty four hours thereafter.

Preparing proper industrial design drawings is extremely challenging work, and we work with experienced illustrators to strive for compliance with Government standards.

 

What About Other Countries?

Regardless of whether an industrial design application was filed first in another country or in Canada, Pnc IP Group offers service and access.

We represent Canadian individuals, companies, and businesses, as well as foreign individuals, companies and businesses.

Through our associate network we regularly file applications in numerous foreign countries on behalf of Canadian clients.

Through that same network we also regularly file applications on behalf of numerous foreign individuals, businesses, companies, and law firms.

Pnc IP Group has spent more than twenty years building a trusted and professional international network to ensure our clients are properly protected.

We work to ensure our design applications are drafted in accordance with Canadian standards but also adaptable to foreign practice.

 

Next Steps?

We take our clients through every stage in a step-by-step process.

We cover an initial design conception to formal black ink drawing creation.

From there we help clients finalize and file a first design patent application.

Timeline explanations are laid out for our clients to decide which options to execute and when.

Depending on options picked, we’ll see our client through to a first design grant, and growing that into an extensive design portfolio in multiple countries.

We take pride in making the industrial design process understandable for our clients.

Our advice range includes:

the application creation process;

dealing with the Designs Office;

managing rights in your business;

understanding manufacture; and

maintaining future rights.

 

Team Assistance

Our process includes helping clients identify designs and design-related features, as well as how their designs relate to their goods, services, and business overall.

We are licensed to represent design applicants before the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) and prosecute design applications.

We also assist design owners in licensing and distribution arrangements, to protect their designs as far down their commercial chain as possible.

We offer design strategy insight on an ongoing basis and regularly work with foreign partners to pursue and maintain international portfolios.

We are lawyers and registered agents, and can be accessed in the greater Toronto area.

PNC IP Group, Your Trusted Partner for Industrial Design Application Filing Services in Canada.

Contact Pnc IP Group today or visit our location to learn more about our services.

None of the content on this web site constitutes legal advice or advice as a registered agent.

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