Designs Quality Standards

Date Published

IP Australia recognises that the services it provides must comply with the requirements of the Designs Act 2003 and Designs Regulations 2004, and meet expectations of quality from its customers.

Quality objectives have been developed which provide a framework as part of our quality system. They are:

  • stakeholders/Customers have confidence in our decisions
  • our services and products demonstrate a professional approach
  • the information we provide is useful for stakeholders.​​​​​​​

As part of meeting the above objectives, a set of Quality Standards is applicable to both the formalities check of design applications and examination of registered designs. They provide us with benchmarks against which to assess (or review) the quality of the work we produce.

The Quality Standards define key quality criteria with a customer centric focus and empower staff to apply their technical expertise as part of making legislative assessments. These Quality Standards contribute to IP Australia's commitment to a culture which strives for high quality outcomes, mastery and professionalism.

The standards will be continually refined in the light of experience and comments from our customers.

The Quality Standards should be read in conjunction with both the legislative requirements and the practices and procedures detailed in the Designs Examiners' Manual.

The Quality Standards do not define practices and procedures. The Designs Examiners' Manual details practices and procedures (and the legislative requirements) which the quality standards assess adherence to.

The Formalities Quality Standards consider the Formalities Officer’s assessment of the design application including formalities checks, decision-making that has occurred and report-writing and record-keeping.

The Examination Quality Standards consider the search strategy that the Examiner has used including prior art extracted and assessment of the prior art base, decision-making that has occurred and report-writing and record-keeping.

Included as part of both sets of Quality Standards are Excellence Guidelines which list a variety of positive attributes which a product or case may demonstrate. The assessment (or review) of a product or case considers positive attributes and can confirm that the delegate has undertaken and completed aspects of a task to a high standard.

The quality standards can be viewed by clicking on the headings below.

Formalities Quality Standards (Printable Word Version)

Examination Quality Standards (Printable Word Version)

Amended Reasons

Amended Reason Date Amended
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