Griffith Hack takes designers through the ABCs of Designs and Copyright Law, including the pitfalls where these laws overlap in Australia and how designers can navigate around these areas. Griffith Hack will provide updates on the Designs Law reforms and use easy-to-understand scenarios on what this means for designers across several areas of application. For example, the grace period and infringement exemption for industrial designers who have used or taken definite steps to use a comparable design before the priority date. This will be particularly timely given the reforms are due to take effect in March 2022.

Also coming into the conversation is the UK-Australia free trade agreement through which Australia has agreed in principle to ratify the Hague Agreement (industrial designs). This session will explore the likelihood of this happening, and how Australia’s acceptance of the Hague Agreement may benefit designers. For example, those provisions may offer a longer term of protection for designs and protection of partial designs and virtual designs. Griffith Hack will explain what this means to designers by presenting real-life examples, including the gaming and digital design space who may benefit from these reforms from an IP stance.

This session is presented by some of Griffith Hack’s senior Patent Attorney and Legal team, holding deep experience from working closely with world-leading local and international designers and brands.