Walking The Fine "Broken" Line In Designs

• Published date: 19 December 2023
• Subject Matter: Intellectual Property, Patent, Trademark
• Law Firm: K&L Gates
• Author: Ms Serena Totino and Jian Hui Gu

In many jurisdictions, it is customary for claimed features of a design to be depicted in solid lines while disclaimed features of a design are shown in broken lines.

In Australia, unless parts of the product are separable, a design will be read as being the overall article represented and the parts with broken lines are not completely disregarded.

Indeed, in Wynnes Patent and Trade Marks Attorneys Pty Ltd v Wamlez Pty Ltd [2023] ADO 3, the Delegate concluded that the overall design "Driver bit for fastener" (Design) represented below should be considered, regardless of the line styles adopted.

The Statement of Newness and Distinctiveness (SoND) of the Design reads "...