Whither Industrial Design

The scope of the Industrial Design Act in Canada is much narrower than the concept of industrial designs, as original and unique manufactured objects, in industry. Indeed, the Industrial Design Act applies only to the aspects of industrial designs which we have described as the design aspects. Similar protection of the design aspects of industrial designs exist in Britain and the United States, although, as discussed, these protections take different forms in each jurisdiction. Although some of the aspects of industrial designs other than the design aspects receive no intellectual property protection in any of the three jurisdictions, others are protected variously through copyright, patent and trade mark However, the extent of the intellectual property protections for industrial design and the degree of overlap between them varies considerably from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. This article looks at the development of the protection of the design aspects of industrial designs, the extent of international co-operation in the treatment of these design aspects, and the protections of all aspects of industrial designs available in Britain, Canada and the United States. This discussion leads to suggestions for the future of Canada\u27s own design laws and treatment of industrial designs generally