Designs

Requirements for South African Designs

Design Applications

Please note that only one embodiment of a design can be filed per design applications

Documentary Requirements

Declaration and Power of Attorney (Designs Form D3): Please furnish the name and capacity of the signatory – no legalization is required. Assignment of Design: No witnesses or legalisation required. Formal drawings or representations of the design (in accordance with patent drawing standards, or electronic copies of photographs of adequate size to show the design clearly). Priority Document(s), together with an English translation of each such document.

NOTE: In terms of the South Africa Designs Act 193 of 1995, a design may be protected as an "aesthetic design", in terms of which protection is afforded for the appearance of a design to the extent that such appearance is not solely functional, or by way of a "functional design", in terms of which protection is afforded to features of a design that are necessitated by function.

Accordingly, an aesthetic design has to be registered in Part “A” of the Register and a functional design in Part “F” of the Register. A design having both aesthetic and functional features can be registered in both Part A and Part F. This requires the filing of two applications with the second application filed at a reduced fee. A single application for a registered design can be filed in a single class only (using the Locarno International Classification for Designs). If protection is required in more than one class, separate design applications have to be filed in each such class. The monopoly afforded by a registered design is restricted to articles which fall within the class or classes in which the design has been registered. If we are not provided with an indication of the class, we shall classify the design ourselves at additional cost.