A NEW APPROACH TO PROTECTION FOR THE DESIGNS OF NEW PRODUCTS

Abstract

Believing there to be a serious deficiency in the protection for new products that is currently available, the author argues for a remedy that places the current design law with a system of protection extending even to the designing process that a manufacturer must pay for in order to create a new product. The author labels this new category of protection “copyright design law” and examines the designing process, drawing analogies to the process of creation involved in artistic endeavours. He conducts a discussion of the expression of ideas in design and then lays out a number of general principles for a new design law. Finally, he undertakes an illustration of how specific provisions of already existing statutes can be reconciled to support these new laws.