Israel Designs Have Ordinance on the Way

The new Israeli Designs Ordinance may include the following issues:

1. Registration formalities such as: a. electronic filing of Israel design patents; b. general correspondence with the the Israel Design Office (Designs department of the Israel Patent Office);  c. time limitations on responding to an Office Action; d. time extensions for responding the Office Actions e. Limiting the overall examination time; f. Accepting priority documents in electronic copy form; g. The Israel Design Office Providing the priority documents and registration in electronic form only; h. Determination of the filing date according to technicalities only or issues of substance; i. Issuing an Office Action by email only

2. Procedures with the Commissioner of the Israeli Design Office:  a. Timing the submittal of  arguments, evidence and interlocutory requests, and how the same are conducted; b. Allowing to request furnishment of evidence by the other party; c. How to determine expenses for a procedure; d. Delivery of a judgement by email

3. Fees:  a. Determining a fee that will encourage registration of a design patent application in Israel; b. Allowing payment of fees in advance for the entire life of the design

4. Publication: a. Is there need to continue with monthly publication of the gazzette and should   there be any changes to the format?  b. Searching in the database of Israeli designs patents – pros and cons, improvement suggestions (the database of Israel designs is fairly new)

5. Criteria for drawings

6. Expiry and reinstatement a. When to notify the Israeli design patent owner that the design is  about to expire; b. The means of notification of the above c. Various options to restoring the  validity, in addition to furnishing a declaration

7. Marking of an unregistered Israeli design a. How to mark the unregistered Israeli design on various articles; b. Should marking of the Israeli design on packaging be acceptable, and how should this be done (such as the marking of copyright)

8. Authorization for additional regional courts to have jurisdiction over Israeli design patents and Israeli unregistered designs; at present only Tel Aviv and Jerusalem district courts have the jurisdiction.   

9. Rules for assessing and awarding expenses in a Israeli design infringement case.

10. Filing an international application (not expected to be in effect until at least 2019) . a. Transfer of the application/request by the Israeli Design Office to the international authority; b. The option to file the international design patent application in printed form

11. Any other issue of interest.

You can give us your comments and we will convey them to the Israel Patent Office.

Further Reading

New Israel Design Law Changes Game