8.5. Examination and certification: Concurrent requests for examination

Date Published

It is possible to receive more than one request for examination of the same design. For example, one might be from the design owner and one might be from a third party. All parties will need to pay a fee for examination.

We may also receive a request to examine a design that has already been certified.

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If the examiner has not started on an earlier request

The examiner will deal with the 2 requests at the same time. If they find grounds for revocation, they will:

  • issue a single examination report to the design owner
  • issue a copy to the third party.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​


If the examiner has already sent out an examination report

The examiner will do another examination in the normal way for the second request and produce a second examination report.

The second examination report will contain all the grounds for revocation that appeared in the first examination report.

We will not issue a certificate of examination until all grounds for revocation in all examination reports have been resolved. The Registrar cannot issue a certificate of examination for one request if grounds for revocation have been found in another examination.

Anyone who requests an examination can appeal the Registrar’s decision (s 67(3)).


Time frame

The first requester needs to respond to the examination report within a set time frame. The final date for overcoming all grounds for revocation is the earliest date set under reg 5.04 for the various examinations. Once that date has passed, examination cannot continue in response to other requests, as the registration has ceased (s 48(1)(a)).