News
Industrial Designs in Canada
May 2008
Canada has its own Classification System comprising 50 classes and 220 subclasses compared to the Locarno System with its 32 classes and 102 subclasses. The Design Office is studying the possibility of utilizing the Locarno classes together with more detailed subclasses from the Canadian Classification System, thereby permitting Canada to harmonize internationally with other IP Offices.
There are several aspects of industrial design practice which are unique to Canada.
A design application in Canada can include multiple designs when filed but must be limited to one design, and variations thereof, during examination. To qualify as variants of one design, the features in each variation should not differ significantly. The Office applies a rigid standard when assessing variations. Consequently, minor differences between representations may result in the representations being considered as separate designs. Of relevance in this determination are the nature of the finished article to which the design is applied and the number of existing design registrations in that particular subclass of articles.
The Design Office does not permit the use of stippled lines in the drawings to show variants of the same design. Rather, stippled lines in the drawings are only acceptable as showing non-design features of the finished article or as showing in one view of the drawings the environment of the design.
While an applicant may be required to delete representations from an application which do not constitute variations of a particular design, it is possible to file one, or more, divisional applications covering the designs removed from the original application. The divisional applications must be filed before the parent application proceeds to registration.
Divisional applications should be filed promptly since the Design Office does not issue notices of allowance and the parent application, once allowed, will proceed to registration within two days.