Industrial Designs Act 1996 · Updated to 1 Jan 2013 · Part III · Registration of Industrial Design
10. Ownership of registered industrial designs
Feedback & supportSubject to this section, the author of an industrial design shall be treated for the purposes of this Act as the original owner of the industrial design.
Where an industrial design is created in pursuance of a commission for money or money’s worth, the person commissioning the industrial design shall, subject to any contrary agreement between the parties, be treated as the original owner of the industrial design.
industrial design
“industrial design” means features of shape, configuration, pattern or ornament applied to an article by any industrial process or means, being features which in the finished article appeal to and are judged by the eye, but does not include— (a) a method or principle of construction; or (b) features of shape or configuration of an article which — (i) are dictated solely by the function which the article has to perform; or (ii) are dependent upon the appearance of another article Industrial Designs 9 of which the article is intended by the author of the design to form an integral part;
Where, in a case not falling within subsection (2), an industrial design is created by an employee in the course of his employment, his employer shall, subject to any contrary agreement between the parties, be treated as the original owner of the industrial design.
The original owner of an industrial design or the assignee of any interest in an industrial design may assign in writing to another person the whole or any part of his interest in the industrial design.
Where an industrial design, or the right to apply an industrial design to any article, becomes vested, whether by assignment, transmission or operation of law, in any person other than the original owner, either alone or jointly with the original owner, that other person or, as the case may be, the original owner and that other person shall be treated for the purposes of section 11 as the original owner of the industrial design or as the original owner of the industrial design in relation to that article.
article
“article” means any article of manufacture or handicraft, and includes any part of such article or handicraft if that part is made and sold separately but does not include an integrated circuit or part of an integrated circuit within the meaning of the Layout-Designs of Integrated Circuits Act 2000, or a mask used to make such an integrated circuit;
In the case of an industrial design generated by computer in circumstances such that there is no human author, the person by whom
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the arrangements necessary for the creation of the industrial design are made shall be taken to be the author.