11.1. Excluded designs: overview

Date Published

Key legislation in this topic: Designs Act: ss 21, 23, 28​​​​​​​
Key related topics: Priority date, Convention priority, Designs disclosed in applications

An applicant can amend their application to exclude (remove) one or more of the designs that were filed in it (s 28).

Section 23 then allows the applicant to make a new and separate application for the excluded design(s) under s 21. Excluded designs re-filed in a new application can retain the priority date that they would have had in the earlier application. For this to occur though, and the subsequent excluded application to be valid, the application requires the designs to be the same as what was previously applied for. ​​​​​​​

Requests to amend the excluded application can be submitted for consideration, but to retain the priority date of the earlier application, designs disclosed in the excluded application need to be identical to what was previously filed.

Additionally, a request to amend an initial application (to exclude one or more designs) requires a design or designs to remain in this application. A request to remove all designs from an initial (earlier) application, to re-file in a new application, would be refused on the basis that the earlier application would no longer meeting minimum filing requirements. This would mean that the earlier application would be without a priority date that the excluded designs could also enjoy.

​​​​​​​Each time a design application excludes one or more designs by way of amendment, the designs in that application are taken to have been disclosed to IP Australia.

Amended Reasons

Amended Reason Date Amended
Back to top