CIPO Accepting Comments on Proposed Amendments to the Industrial Design Regulations

The Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) is accepting comments until July 7, 2008 on proposed amendments to the Industrial Design Regulations (Regulations) published on June 7, 2008 in the Canada Gazette. The purpose of the proposed amendments is to modernize the industrial design regulatory regime by making it "more user-friendly, cost-effective and responsive to clients' needs". More specifically, the amendments:

• allow an applicant to file colour drawings and photographs;
• allow the illustration of a design as applied to an article, where the design portion of the article is illustrated with solid lines and the remainder of the article is illustrated with stippled lines;
• allow one of the drawings to show environment in stippled lines;
• remove the requirement to include the title of the design in correspondence with CIPO;
• require all drawings and photographs to be "clear and accurate"; and
• require all documents submitted to be "clear and legible".

For the proposed amendments to the Industrial Design Regulations, see: http://canadagazette.gc.ca/partI/2008/20080607/html/regle3-e.html For further information see: http://tinyurl.com/6m5vzq Summary by: Lauren Lodenquai