DESIGNS AMENDMENT ACT 1981 No. 42, 1981
DESIGNS AMENDMENT ACT 1981 No. 42 of 1981 - SECT. 1.
Short title.
DESIGNS AMENDMENT ACT 1981
No. 42 of 1981
An Act to amend the Designs Act 1906, and for related purposes
BE IT ENACTED by the Queen, and the Senate and the House of Representatives
of the Commonwealth of Australia, as follows:
PART I - PRELIMINARY
Short title
1. This Act may be cited as the Designs Amendment Act 1981.*1*
DESIGNS AMENDMENT ACT 1981 No. 42 of 1981 - SECT. 2.
Commencement
2. (1) Sections 1 and 2 shall come into operation on the day on which this
Act receives the Royal Assent.*1*
(2) Section 31, Part IV and sub-section 36 (2) shall come into operation on
a date to be fixed by Proclamation.
(3) The remaining provisions of this Act shall come into operation on a date
to be fixed by Proclamation.
DESIGNS AMENDMENT ACT 1981 No. 42 of 1981 - SECT. 3.
Principal Act
PART II - AMENDMENTS OF THE DESIGNS ACT 1906
3. The Designs Act 1906*2* is in this Part referred to as the Principal
Act.
DESIGNS AMENDMENT ACT 1981 No. 42 of 1981 - SECT. 4.
Title
4. The title of the Principal Act is amended by omitting "Copyright in
Industrial Designs" and substituting "designs".
DESIGNS AMENDMENT ACT 1981 No. 42 of 1981 - SECT. 5.
5. Sections 4, 4A, 4B and 5 of the Principal Act are repealed and the
following sections substituted:
Interpretation
"4. (1) In this Act, unless the contrary intention appears -
'article' means any article of manufacture and includes a part of such an
article if made separately;
'artistic work' has the same meaning as in the Copyright Act 1968;
'Australia' includes Norfolk Island;
'Convention country' means a country in respect of which there is in force
for the time being a Proclamation under section 48 declaring that country to
be a Convention country for the purposes of this Act;
'corresponding design' has the same meaning as in Division 8 of Part III of
the Copyright Act 1968;
'Deputy Registrar' means the Deputy Registrar of Designs holding office
under this Act;
'design' means features of shape, configuration, pattern or ornamentation
applicable to an article, being features that, in the finished article, can be
judged by the eye, but does not include a method or principle of
construction;
'monopoly', in relation to a registered design, means the exclusive right to
apply the design to an article in respect of which the design is so
registered;
'Official Journal' means the Official Journal referred to in section 175 of
the Patents Act 1952;
'owner' means -
(a) in relation to a design that is not a registered design - a person who
is the owner of the design in accordance with section 19 or, if there are 2 or
more persons who have an interest in the design in accordance with that
section, each of those persons; or
(b) in relation to a registered design - the person who is registered as
the owner of the registered design or, if there are 2 or more such persons,
each of those persons;
'prescribed court' means the Supreme Court of a State, the Supreme Court of
the Australian Capital Territory, the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory
of Australia or the Supreme Court of Norfolk Island;
'register' means the Register of Designs under this Act;
'registered' means registered under this Act;
'registered design' means a design registered under this Act;
'Registrar' means the Registrar of Designs holding office under this Act;
'representation', in relation to an article to which a design is applied,
means a drawing, tracing or specimen of the article to which the design is
applied or a photograph of such a drawing, tracing or specimen;
'set of articles' means a number of articles that are of the same general
character and ordinarily on sale, or intended to be used, together, being
articles to each of which there is applied a design that is the same as, or
that differs only in immaterial details or in features commonly used in the
relevant trade from, the design applied to the other articles or to any of
them;
'State Designs Act' means any State Act relating to the registration of
designs;
'statement of monopoly', in relation to a design, means a statement relating
to the representations of an article to which the design is applied that
indicates -
(a) those features of the representations in respect of which the
applicant for registration of the design wishes to claim a monopoly; and
(b) those features of the representations that are to be disregarded in